A lively celebration of music and expressive dance.
The beat is all around her when a girl takes a walk in the park with her mother.
On a lovely summer day, a young African-American girl in a bright pink sundress and matching sneakers sees, smells, sings, claps and snaps her fingers to an internal rhythm. As a boom box plays its song and a drummer taps his beat, neighborhood children join her in an energetic, pulsating dance culminating in a rousing musical parade. Schofield-Morrison’s brief text has a shout-it-out element as each spread resounds with a two-word phrase: “I shook a rhythm with my hips. /SHAKE SHAKE”; “I tapped the rhythm with my toes. / TIP TAP.” Morrison’s full-bleed, textured oil paintings capture the joy of a mother and daughter in an urban park surrounded by musicians, food vendors and many exuberant children. Read this aloud with music playing loudly—not in the background. Morrison is a Coretta Scott King/New Talent Award winner, and this is a fine debut for his wife in their first collaboration.
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-178-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
As implied by the title, the Hokey Pokey takes on a decidedly amphibian tone in this sprightly, cheerful selection, which is filled to the brim with kid appeal. As the song begins, children are invited to join the frogs and follow the traditional lyrics and movements (“Put your right hand in, / Put your right hand out”) until they’ve waved said appendage all about, but then the words change: “Hop the Croaky Pokey / As we chase a fly around, / Right in the froggy’s mouth! / WHAP!” Lively, cartoonish illustrations feature animals at a pond, including a number of frogs (in a delightful variety of greens), none of whom, it turns out, is particularly skilled at catching bugs. As the song continues, hilarity ensues as the blissfully ignorant target fly remains just out of reach, despite all the frogs’ best efforts. But luck like this can’t possibly last forever—can it? Children will giggle throughout, especially at the surprise ending, and will be singing and dancing along in seconds flat. A nice choice for school and home and a good choice for reluctant readers, full of energy, humor and fun. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2291-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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