Fun for families looking to add big, weird words to a young reader’s vocabulary.
A labyrinthine lexicon challenges readers in Berg’s alliterative alphabet book.
A child with stark white skin, black hair clipped back in a skull bow, opens the pages of an eerie alphabet book. The child appears on each page, typically peering in from the corner, occasionally interacting with the depicted characters. The surreal appearance of the child’s big, glowing, pupilless eyes make Barrett’s character design reminiscent of an Edward Gorey etching. The illustrator also references William Steig’s Shrek on the page on which “oreopithecus … officiate overwrought owls obstreperously overseeing ogres offering oranges.” Each page is just as much a mouthful; the author offers a full seven-page glossary, because so many of the vocabulary words chosen will require looking up, even by most adult readers. Luckily, the meaning doesn’t seem to be the point here—all of the sentences are silly, even if they are correctly structured, and the illustrations are jam-packed with gross and spooky details (Jack-o-lanterns are frequently depicted losing their innards, and invisible imps torment a pair of children, even setting one’s pants on fire). These details are sure to please the gross-out crowd, and the fun of saying the strange words aloud makes up for the lack of punctuation and the obtuse meanings.
Fun for families looking to add big, weird words to a young reader’s vocabulary.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1039171114
Page Count: 62
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
So rocket science can be fun.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
If they haven’t already thought about their futures (and they probably haven’t), toddlers and preschoolers might start planning after perusing this cheerful first guide to scientific careers. Plump-cheeked, wide-eyed tykes with various skin and hair colors introduce different professions, including zoologist, meteorologist, aerospace engineer, and environmental scientist, depicted with cues to tip readers off to what the jobs entail. The simple text presents the sometimes-long, tongue-twisting career names while helpfully defining them in comprehensible terms. For example, an environmental scientist “helps take care of our world,” and a zoologist is defined as someone who “studies how animals behave.” Scientists in general are identified as those who “study, learn, and solve problems.” Such basic language not only benefits youngsters, but also offers adults sharing the book easy vocabulary with which to expand on conversations with kids about the professions. The title’s ebullient appearance is helped along by the typography: The jobs’ names are set in all caps, printed in color and in a larger font than the surrounding text, and emphasized with exclamation points. Additionally, the buoyant watercolors feature clues to what scientists in these fields work with, such as celestial bodies for astronomers. The youngest listeners won’t necessarily get all of this, but the book works as a rudimentary introduction to STEM topics and a shoutout to scientific endeavors.
So rocket science can be fun. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62354-149-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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