The novelty of the finger puppet is the slight story’s highlight.
A finger-puppet book depicts the nocturnal activities of a baby raccoon.
This very small (4.25 inches square) board book with extra-thick pages features a sewn fabric raccoon finger puppet that sticks through a circular diecut in the center of each page. This makes the raccoon’s head and neck somewhat movable on each page as the face fits into the illustrations. The puppet itself is surprisingly detailed and quite charming, with black-and-white detailing against the gray body and embroidered eyes and a nose. Readers meet Baby Raccoon at sunset and follow along on his nighttime prowl as he forages, plays, and climbs a tree. Most of the details in the book appear to be factually correct about raccoons, with the exception of its promulgation of the whimsical and widely misunderstood notion that raccoons “wash their food in the stream” before eating it. The text itself is very simple and descriptive of the action on each page, making for appropriate but not particularly exciting pacing. The progression from sunset to sunrise is clearly represented in the backgrounds. The puppet is fun, but its wide-eyed expression cannot change. That said, older infants and toddlers will enjoy engaging with the little critter as a caregiver's finger animates it. Companion titles Baby Fox and Little Love Bug follow in a similar style, though with even less adherence to fact. The nocturnal fox is shown eating and playing during the day, and the love bug is mostly a parent-child love story.
The novelty of the finger puppet is the slight story’s highlight. (Board book/novelty. 6 mos.-2)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7080-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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