While not the only counting book children will ever need, this peek into Mexico’s art and traditions is certainly one of the...
Playful ceramics enact a traditional Mexican festival parade, from uno to diez.
“íAquí viene el desfile! / íCuenta conmigo!” With this buoyant invitation, readers are ushered into the traditional Oaxacan festival of Guelaguetza. From “[e]l señor de la marota” who leads the parade, through musicians, costumed “giants,” flower-bearing ladies and more, folk-art ceramics offer clear, eye-catching figures for little ones to count. Each set is positioned against the series’ now-trademark supersaturated backgrounds, the fuchsia, turquoise and ocher pages providing extra pop. The simple sentences, arranged in English-over-Spanish below the figures, offer brief explanations and reinforce the festive atmosphere (“Cover your ears! The fireworks are loud!”). Each number is spelled out in both English and Spanish, but there are no numerals to accompany the text. While there is a certain paucity in the variety of parade participants (two groups of musicians as well as three groups of costumed ladies), there’s no denying the effervescence of the event. The Aguilar sisters’ work appears in museums all over the world, and this book marks their first collaboration.
While not the only counting book children will ever need, this peek into Mexico’s art and traditions is certainly one of the most joyous they’ll encounter. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-935955-39-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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