Undeniably sweet even if neither theme nor treatment is particularly new.
A rhyming board book about the love between a parent and child.
As the title suggests, this offering is all about the ways that caregivers love, protect, care for, and cherish their children. Each turn of the page reveals a new adult-child animal pair with its own rhyming stanza. The text explores many facets of parental love—celebrating it not just when things are sunny, but also on stormy days and through sadness. One particularly sweet rhyme relates, “I’ll hold you when sadness / and tears fill your eyes. / My arms will be there / to catch all your cries.” Most of the text includes simple rhymes (sky/fly and sand/hand for example), and none are forced or read aloud awkwardly. The illustrations include anthropomorphized animals in mostly bright pastels with simple smiling expressions. Much like the text, they’re cute enough, but there’s not a lot of variation in style. The bat pup wrapped up in its parent’s wings is an especially darling pair; they do indeed look “all cozy and snug.” Glancing references to “prayers” and “God” give the text a slight religious edge, though the book is otherwise secular. Given that this is designed to be shared with a lap-sitting child, it’s a bit lengthy.
Undeniably sweet even if neither theme nor treatment is particularly new. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4964-4622-0
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Tyndale Kids
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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