High on play value and low on informational or literary content.
This set of nine miniature board books introduces youngsters to animals spanning the globe.
Each book, measuring a little over 1¾ inches square and 1¼ inches thick, tackles a different set of creatures grouped by taxonomy (“Insects and Bugs”), habitat (“Forest Animals”), relationship with humans (“Pets”; “Farm Animals”), and more. Each title contains five chunky double-page spreads with an animal appearing on the recto and a one-word label centered on the white background of the verso. Four different illustrators worked on the simple cartoon illustrations, and it shows, with styles varying dramatically. For example, the duck from “Birds” is a stylized but fairly realistic mallard, and the duck from “Life in the Pond” looks like it belongs in a child’s bathtub. The back of each book features one-ninth of a scene featuring a few of the creatures from inside the pages, and when the books are all flipped over, kids can assemble them like a puzzle. The set is contained in a sturdy box with a magnetic closure, each book nestled in its own candy-box–like section. Cover images for each title appear on the bottom of the box to aid in placing them back in storage, a superfluous feature. The square, blocky shape of the books may mean that they prove more popular for little fingers as toys than books.
High on play value and low on informational or literary content. (Novelty/board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948418-52-2
Page Count: 54
Publisher: Clever Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
A charming and very simple introduction to animals and their sleeping habits for babies and toddlers.
A brief introduction to some of the ways animals sleep.
The book starts off with the titular phrase, “Hello animals! How do you sleep?” On each double-page spread, two beautiful and realistic illustrations provide the answer. The text is spare: “Warm in the hay” (a calf and a foal); “Tucked in my tail” (a squirrel and a fox); “Cozy on cushions” (a dog and a cat); “Curled in nests” (a hedgehog and a gerbil); “Deep in dens” (a rabbit and a bear); and “Snuggled in straw” (two ducklings and a hen). The animals are not named, but most will be familiar to adult readers if not children. Author/illustrator Botman is from the Netherlands, and it shows in the choices of some of the animals illustrated, such as a hedgehog and a red squirrel, which are not native to North America. By keeping the text spare, Botman allows readers to focus on the illustrations, which are quite lovely. They appear to have been done with pastel crayons or some other smudgy medium, as they have a comforting, mottled look.
A charming and very simple introduction to animals and their sleeping habits for babies and toddlers. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78250-551-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With its companions, a baby-friendly classic.
In this retold nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty is a hapless, egg-shaped crab.
The orange-red protagonist sits on a wall that looks to be the sunken ruin of a sand castle and then suffers the inevitable fall. The king’s horses and king’s men are sea horse stretcher bearers and an operating trio of a shrimp, a shark, and a dolphin, respectively. True to the rhyme, they are unsuccessful in healing Humpty Dumpty, so the crab, who likely needs better health insurance, is sent on his way still cracked and bandaged. Animals similarly star in companion titles. A bear plays the role of “baker’s man” in Pat-a-Cake, marking a cake “for baby and me” with a large blue B and inexplicably frosting it before baking it. The stars of Jack and Jill are two goats, one white and one black, respectively, who climb a peak only for Jack to fall and break a horn, which is somehow miraculously fixed on the final page. In Mary Had a Little Lamb, Mary is a purple lamb who has a beloved stuffed lamb toy with whitish-gray fleece. This is the only classic text that is condensed; the repetition of the song is absent, which makes singing in time to the page turns difficult. In the other titles, the lines of rhyme flow quite nicely; particularly effective is the page-turn pause before Jill comes “tumbling after.” Quintanilla’s imagery has an endearing cuteness, featuring animals with voluminous eyes on oversize heads.
With its companions, a baby-friendly classic. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1669-2
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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