This well-executed concept book with chic illustrations is feathery fun
A lift-the-flap book featuring eye-catching birds with plenty of personality deftly introduces colors to young bird-watchers.
As much a work of graphic design as illustration, this French import features rounded, stylized avian friends. The birds’ dramatic black-and-white patterns stand out prominently against wide expanses of candy-colored backgrounds. Interactive flaps are incorporated into the bird shapes, and each wing, tail, or head flap reveals a high-contrast color and corresponding label. These little birdies sport plumage in 11 distinct hues. Élo ensures that each page feels fresh with charming and sometimes-humorous surprises such as a little yellow chick hiding under a mother hen or an enormous wing draped over an unexpectedly tiny bird. Other, livelier flips animate the story, as readers flap the duck’s wing or open an eye to wake a sleeping bird. A speckled owl playing peekaboo is an especially pleasing conclusion. Though its pieces are glued down tightly and should endure exuberant handling, some of the smaller ones can be hard to grip and crease a little too easily. The appealingly small trim size is ideal for little hands to hold independently, and a solid cardboard cover with rounded and reinforced edges will increase its longevity.
This well-executed concept book with chic illustrations is feathery fun . (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0063-8
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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