This counting book shows different chickens doing diverse dances until they reach the number ten. Things come to a halt, however, when the author addresses the reader by pointing out that one chicken is not cooperating: the reader. Encouraged to make music with a comb kazoo, the author suggests the reader start dancing the night away. Though the dances shown are varied and fun, they may not all be familiar to children. Long’s pictures are surprisingly washed-out-looking even though he uses a wide palette of colors. However, the backgrounds are painted in such drab colors that the more vibrantly colored pictures of the chickens dancing are somehow lost on the page. The author’s rhymes will probably succeed better as a read-aloud, allowing for an active story time. Not one of the more necessary counting books available, it’s a bit of a disappointment. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1983-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2007
Walsh (Big and Little, not reviewed, etc) continues to delight and inform toddlers with these two celebrations of unity in diversity. “Dachshunds are long with little legs. Dalmatians are tall and spotty. But . . . they both love chasing sticks!” In characteristically large, very simple paintings, these dogs, and four other animal pairs, pose playfully against bright monochromatic backgrounds in the first volume. Similarly depicted, a quartet of light- and dark-skinned children graces My Nose, Your Nose (0-618-15077-3). “Davy’s skin is brown. Agnes’s skin is white. But . . . they both have cheeky pink tongues!” And like their mates Kit and Arthur—and everyone else—they close their eyes when they go to sleep. As there’s no corresponding sense of closure in My Beak, Your Beak, the two titles form a seamless whole, making this more like one work for the price of two—still, the theme is certainly important enough to justify the extra expense. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-15079-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Good lift-the-flap books provide a sense of discovery and the engaging pleasures of being a co-conspirator. This one from Alborough is a good one, exercising the bean while tickling the bone. It is a very simple affair: Duck, with his feather-fingered hands as big as Shaquille O’Neal and his cavernous orange beak, has lost the keys to his truck. But not so fast—they have actually been purloined by frog, who hides behind various features on the page and invites readers to join his game of hide-and-seek. Attentive kids will note a developing pattern and little clues. At 18 pages, the ruse won’t be extended into cruelty, and the ending is a gift to the duck, who merrily drives off without his suitcase. The air of mischief is light and fun and the sturdy-paper construction should keep the flaps flapping for many a hard yank. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-929132-72-7
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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