This gallery of quietude works for bedtime or calming down while also acknowledging that some quiet moods are less than happy. Each page shows one type of quietness, from classics such as, “Sleeping sister quiet,” to the creative locale of “Swimming underwater quiet,” to the delightful specificity of “Trying not to hiccup quiet.” As these young children (moose, bear, rabbit, mouse and porcupine) move from scene to scene, they experience some contented silences (watching a robin, skipping rocks with a friend) and some tinged with insecurity (“First look at your new hairstyle quiet”), regret (“Jelly side down quiet”—a sandwich falling to the floor) or worry (“Last one to get picked up from school quiet”). The final sequence—a nighttime car ride in the snow, peaceful steps to bedtime—makes a comforting end. Liwska colors her finely hatched pencil drawings with low-value, low-intensity hues, matching the theme of low aural volume with a muted but detailed visual quality that invites a close look. Soothing and layered. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-547-21567-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With a rhyme constructed along the lines of “Over in the Meadow” and big, very simple paintings, Coats takes toddlers and post-toddlers on a tour of animal families in various climes. From a mother seal and her one pup, “ ‘Dive!’ Says the mother / so they both dive together” to a “croaking mother frog” and her ten “squirmy wormy tadpoles” each group’s activity takes place in “stormy stormy weather” or “rainy rainy weather,” etc. There are a few glitches in this import’s language, including references to a “cold and draughty house” and a clan of kittens “all along the strawstacks”—but children will enjoy the text’s pleasing sonority, and crowd around at the author’s invitation to “Count the mums and babies up / In every kind of weather!” (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2003
ISBN: 1-85881-513-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Very simple, Byron Barton–like art featuring a dozen mites with engagingly oversized, googly eyes overcomes iffy rhyming—and even iffier biology—to offer a deceptively sophisticated sequence of math and design concepts. It begins and ends with a “bug”—actually a caterpillar—who provides the supporting base for various combinations of creatures—from a spider and a pair of snails to worms, bees, and finally a tiny flea, all of whom arrive or depart piecemeal, perch together in various acrobatic architectures, then finally disperse after the inevitable collapse: “Look out—they’re falling! / The poor little things! / They all should go home / Before bedtime begins.” Verbal pratfalls aside, this makes a playful way to take that first, challenging step past simple addition, offering plenty of practice in both counting and pattern recognition. (Picture book. 3-4)
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2005
ISBN: 1-894965-12-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simply Read
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2005
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