Flawed but playful enough to please riddle-loving youngsters.
Tongue-twisting, ocean-themed riddles help children guess what marine creature is hiding under a flap.
In this busy board book, a lengthy, rhyming list of clues identifies a different sea animal on the verso, with the answer hiding under a flap on the recto. While the verses mostly scan, some vocabulary and syntax are fiddly, using unusual words like “landlubbers” or “spoutin’,” meaning that little ones parsing the complex rhyme may lose the thread of “tail” hinting at an answer of “whale.” Helpfully, readers get a glimpse of a part of the hiding animal on top of the flap to assist in solving the puzzle. Reading the riddles aloud is complicated by tall, thin, serif typeset. Placed upon a busy decorative border, it makes for a chaotic-looking page, and the chunky animal name hiding under the flap is similarly visually overwhelming. The colorful art, done in a collage style, is jaunty enough, with patterns and layering aplenty. It places squiggly magenta lines atop a vibrant watermelon-pink octopus and renders tentacles in plaid and stripes drifting off the jellyfish. Some may find the rough-cut smiles on the sea creatures creepy, not cute. The flaps are fairly strong, though the blunt square edges can make it hard to grip and flip. A companion title, Riddle Diddle Rainforest, shares the same style.
Flawed but playful enough to please riddle-loving youngsters. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68152-499-3
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Amicus Ink
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The message is wholehearted and positive, but the cloying execution doesn’t stand out.
A parent koala encourages its child to engage in every pursuit, and so do several other animals.
The British celebrity author, host of both children’s and adult TV programs, has a very positive message to spread, but there is nothing original in the lightweight text. The many animal characters pictured in diverting, fuzzy-edged illustrations engage in various activities as the text encourages them. “You can sing! If you love to sing, sing. / Shout at the top of your lungs, or whisper soft and sweet.” On verso, a frog quartet harmonizes, while across the gutter, a lion is shown with open mouth roaring as a small bird presumably whispers. Using rhyme and alliteration but without real poetic consistency, lines such as these appear: “You can share. You can care. You can create. You can learn. / You can wonder. You can wander.” The pink flamingo creating a fantastic dessert with pineapple rings is an appealing image, and children will enjoy seeing the cuddly baby koala throughout the book as other animals step up for their showcase. The fantasy-forest setting and its animals will keep small children engaged, but the sweetness comes with a significant aftertaste of treacle. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 34.5% of actual size.)
The message is wholehearted and positive, but the cloying execution doesn’t stand out. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-18141-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
A smart, stealth bedtime tale.
A brown bear tries his best to slumber through winter.
Winter has come, and the snow has begun to pile high. Deep in his cave Bear tosses and turns, unable to fall asleep. Mouse arrives to check on his friend’s hibernation and is startled to find Bear still awake. Mouse brews some tea, but when that doesn’t work, Mouse enlists other woodland critters to help get bear to sleep. Lullabies, warm milk, and bedtime tales ensue. Bear and his pals are presented in Chapman’s trademark warm-colored, thin-lined illustrations, which flip-flop between double-page spreads and full-bleed, full-page illustrations opposed by vignettes in ovals. Scenes in Bear’s cozy den, his growing band of animal friends gathered in concern, have a rustic charm; one illustration, in which all the animals “hum,” depicts them with mouths open wide, but it’s so doggone cute readers won’t quibble. The text is composed in rhythmic, rhyming verse, paced to slowly but surely get little readers to feel their eyelids begin to weigh just a little bit more with each turn of the page; the refrain, variations on “And the bear / can’t / sleep!” will have readers chiming in before the final page quotes Bear’s first outing and provides resolution: “but the bear / snores / on!” Many little ones will be ready to turn in afterward as well.
A smart, stealth bedtime tale. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5973-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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