bookshelf

HOW MANY?

Name: HOW MANY?
Author: Christopher Danielson
ISBN: 978-1-58089-943-7

by Christopher Danielson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2019

Innovative and intellectually stimulating.

bookshelf

A concept book that gives readers the choice of what to count.

Danielson’s analytical approach to the counting book begins with a photograph of shoes in a box and some guided options of what to count, such as the number of shoes (2) or the number of pairs (1). He consistently includes open questions to encourage independent, creative thinking. Following the example of the shoes, the phrase “How many?” appears on the left with a photograph on the right depicting various foods as they are prepared for cooking, usually three spreads per type of foodstuff. The mostly overhead angle and neat, intentional layout of the photographs makes for clear expectations when decoding the images. Each foodstuff starts simple (a bowl of grapefruits), then changes the items’ state somehow (halved grapefruits on a cutting board with new tools nearby), then ends on a more-complex image (the fruit juiced in a measuring cup with glasses and more whole fruit in the background). The penultimate set of photos shows a kitchen counter with assorted items from previous pages, serving as a culmination of sorts to the visual narrative. The ending pages encourage rereads and “new questions to wonder about,” such as the fairly abstract, “What numbers are missing?” After an initial read with a caregiver, young readers can easily go back and contemplate the pages independently to make new discoveries.

Innovative and intellectually stimulating. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-58089-943-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
WHICH ONE DOESN'T BELONG?
by Christopher Danielson ; illustrated by Christopher Danielson

bookshelf

ABC POP-UP

by Courtney Watson McCarthy ; illustrated by Courtney Watson McCarthy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017

Easy on the eyes, but more a showcase for collectors than a teaching tool.

bookshelf

A small alphabet of pop-up shapes, tidily packaged in a slipcase.

Alternating white forms on monochrome backgrounds with monochrome on white, the pop-ups—from a 3-D Apple to raised Yellow sweater with (nonworking) Zipper—accurately depict common items or scenes. For the most part, anyway—there are occasional inventive flights, as in an emphatically negatory concatenation of variously sized “NO”s representing those two letters. A few models feature moving parts, but in general McCarthy goes less for dazzling paper-engineering effects than for clean lines and neat compositions. Aside from an embossed, uncolored, single initial placed in an inconspicuous (sometimes nearly invisible) spot on each example, there are no identifiers or captions. This leads to opportunities for conversation. While the white Elephant is quite obvious, on the following page, three purple Flowers pop up over some blades of Grass—or maybe it’s a Garden? The large picture of a slice of orange on the carton of Juice will confuse more than one young reader. But most of the forms are probably too fragile for alphabet-learners anyway.

Easy on the eyes, but more a showcase for collectors than a teaching tool. (Pop-up alphabet. 4-6, adult)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-7636-9007-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick Studio

Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

bookshelf

ALL ABOARD!

LET'S RIDE A TRAIN

by Nichole Mara ; illustrated by Andrew Kolb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 2017

Right on track! (Board book. 3-6)

bookshelf

This delightful board book unfolds to become a train almost 6 feet long with lots to explore in each car.

Each page in this concertina-structured book is a train car covered by a big flap, hinged at the top of the page. Lift the flap, and the interior of the car is revealed. Readers can unfold the book to see the train in its full length. Anthropomorphized animals and a multiethnic, multicultural cast of characters constitute the passengers on the train. Colorful cartoonlike illustrations include a gnome, a brawny, kilted white Scot, a scholarly looking bald eagle, a sleeping vampire, and a yoga-practicing giraffe. On the cover readers see a brown-skinned young passenger boarding the train sporting a bright red-and-yellow baseball cap over a black Afro. As the book unfolds, the baseball cap is now missing, and readers will follow the intrepid passenger from car to car on the search for the baseball cap. In each car there are colors to spot, shapes to find, noisy things to identify, and lots of details to take in. On the verso, there is also much to see and identify as the train makes its traverse from countryside to urban setting. Young children and their adult readers will find plenty to keep them engaged.

Right on track! (Board book. 3-6)