Alphonse and Natalie, the lovable, active preschool monster siblings from Alphonse, That Is Not OK To Do! (2016) and I Do Not Like Books Anymore! (2018), are back with a way to enjoy nature and the outdoors from their seventh-floor apartment.
Playing indoors can be fun for the children if they use their imagination. They can drive their bunk bed, tumble in the hallway, and hide behind the big green chair and then leap out with a “Raaaar!” But when they play wiggly worms all over the small apartment and start to bump and upset things like Dad’s coffee, then: “NATALIEALPHONSE, that is not a good game for indoors!” The kids begin to bemoan the fact that, unlike their friend Elfrida, who has a backyard with a tent for sleeping, they have no backyard space, and so Natalie declares, “I’m going to live in the park.” Ever patient and supportive Dad agrees, and they all go out to “have an expedition.” After exploring and living under a bush for a while, they collect some sticks and head back to the apartment, with sticks to build a tent on the balcony. Bold, bright colors against white space depict the familiarly fiendish family’s third installment in a very familiar scenario, one that offers gentle guidance to caregivers as well as affirmation and inspiration to children.
Imaginative play leads to inventive solutions in this sweet sibling tale. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1117-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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SEEN & HEARD
Dancing is one of the most universal elements of cultures the world over.
In onomatopoeic, rhyming text, Bolling encourages readers to dance in styles including folk dance, classical ballet, breakdancing, and line dancing. Read aloud, the zippy text will engage young children: “Tappity Tap / Fingers Snap,” reads the rhyme on the double-page spread for flamenco; “Jiggity-Jig / Zig-zag-zig” describes Irish step dancing. The ballet pages stereotypically include only children in dresses or tutus, but one of these dancers wears hijab. Overall, children included are racially diverse and vary in gender presentation. Diaz’s illustrations show her background in animated films; her active child dancers generally have the large-eyed sameness of cartoon characters. The endpapers, with shoes and musical instruments, could become a matching game with pages in the book. The dances depicted are described at the end, including kathak from India and kuku from Guinea, West Africa. Unfortunately, these explanations are quite rudimentary. Kathak dancers use their facial expressions extensively in addition to the “movements of their hands and their jingling feet,” as described in the book. Although today kuku is danced at all types of celebrations in several countries, it was once done after fishing, an activity acknowledged in the illustrations but not mentioned in the explanatory text.
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63592-142-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
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