Little eyes will like the stimulating visuals. Skip the words.
Fine-arts masterpieces presented to showcase properties and possibilities of color.
Reproductions shine on the page, though no titles or artist credits appear until the backmatter. František Kupka’s Disks of Newton is a colorful explosion; Jasper Johns’ Nines combines simplicity with nuance in a three-primary design. However, Baill’s definitions and explanations sink the project. Peter Paone’s Someone’s Topiary and Victor Gabriel Gilbert’s Poppies in a Field both effectively demonstrate exciting ways that red and green can offset and enhance each other, but the crucial term complementary is missing, as are the other two complementary pairs (yellow/purple, orange/blue). Displaying silver and gold, the text claims that “shimmery shades that are perfectly polished are called metallic”—but any hue can shimmer, depending on material and light; those two are metallic because they’re metal, not because they’re shiny. The explanation that two primaries mix to make each secondary receives a mere Venn diagram as demonstration. Two reddish-brown goldfish by Roy Lichtenstein are nowhere near a primary red but are absurdly called “rosy” and “primary.” Minuscule print and thumbnails arranged in columns (not rows) in the backmatter demand extra effort to identify the works. A stumbling author’s note mentions the Black Lives Matter movement because “privilege and injustice [are] inherent in skin color,” the word inherent implying that racial justice is impossible and that racism’s caused by literal hue.
Little eyes will like the stimulating visuals. Skip the words. (project ideas, works cited) (Informational picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61689-966-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Sure to appeal to budding paleontologists everywhere.
Colorful, fun, and informative guide for pint-sized dinosaur enthusiasts.
Kid-friendly and more informative than most dino books for tots, this lift-the-flap dinosaur book is a great next step for any kid with an interest in the subject. Each double-page panorama—occasionally folding out to three or even four pages wide—is organized around types of dinosaurs or habitats. While most featured dinosaurs are land dwellers, prehistoric reptiles of the sea and sky appear as well. Dinosaurs are rendered in bright colors on a white background in a childlike style that makes even Tyrannosaurus rex not too terrifying. Make no mistake, though; the king of the dinosaurs is clearly labeled “CARNIVORE.” Folding T. rex’s head back reveals a black-and-white handsaw, to which the text likens its enormous, sharp teeth. Another marginal illustration, captioned, “Watch out! T. rex is looking for its lunch,” shows a Triceratops specimen on a plate. Yet another reads, “Crushed dinosaur bones have been found in T. rex poop!” Several racially diverse kids appear in each scene, like toddler scientists variously observing, inspecting, and riding on the dinosaurs depicted. In addition to teaching the difference between herbivores and carnivores, the book also conveys a sense of the scale of these prehistoric beasts: Diplodocus is two school buses long, a Triceratops adult is the size of an elephant, and a Velociraptor is the size of a turkey, for example.
Sure to appeal to budding paleontologists everywhere. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0809-2
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A cheery board book to reinforce the oneness of babykind.
Ten babies in 10 countries greet friends in almost 10 languages.
Countries of origin are subtly identified. For example, on the first spread, NYC is emblazoned on a blond, white baby’s hat as well as a brown baby’s scoot-car taxi. On the next spread, “Mexico City” is written on a light brown toddler’s bike. A flag in each illustration provides another hint. However, the languages are not named, so on first reading, the fine but important differences between Spanish and Portuguese are easily missed. This is also a problem on pages showing transliterated Arabic from Cairo and Afrikaans from Cape Town. Similarly, Chinese and Japanese are transliterated, without use of traditional hànzì or kanji characters. British English is treated as a separate language, though it is, after all, still English. French (spoken by 67 million people) is included, but German, Russian, and Hindi (spoken by 101 million, 145 million, and 370 million respectively) are not. English translations are included in a slightly smaller font. This world survey comes full circle, ending in San Francisco with a beige baby sleeping in an equally beige parent’s arms. The message of diversity is reinforced by images of three babies—one light brown, one medium brown, one white—in windows on the final spread.
A cheery board book to reinforce the oneness of babykind. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-938093-87-6
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Duo Press
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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