Though these mice are rather tame in the mischief department, preschoolers get some good practice in counting down, adding...
Ten adorable mice one by one abandon their chores for fun, allowing readers an introduction to the addition facts summing 10.
When the 10 mice awake in their oh-so-awesome triple-layer bunk bed, one immediately jumps into the fun: “9 mice tidy. / 1 mouse somersaults. 9+1=10.” The mice are differentiated enough so careful observers can see that the diligent mice are always the same ones. While eight mice cook breakfast, two juggle. Seven wash up, three spin the plates on needles while standing on spools of thread. And so the day continues with household chores sure to be familiar to preschoolers—hanging and folding laundry, scrubbing and mopping the floor, dusting and polishing. One by one, each is edged out by fun—balancing, swinging, building, etc., a math sentence on every page. Rossell’s delightful pencil, liquid acrylic and collage illustrations are the stars here. With small alphabet blocks, Legos, pencils and marbles as the mice’s playthings, little ones may imagine rodents in their own homes playing with the miscellany they have left lying around. While the math is there on every page, the learning is painless, as preschoolers will likely be more focused on the antics of the mice; repeat readings will keep exposing children to the math facts.
Though these mice are rather tame in the mischief department, preschoolers get some good practice in counting down, adding up to 10 and recognizing addition sentences. (Math picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2947-9
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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