Caregivers will flip over the innovative flaps, warm animal art, and opportunities to interact with little listeners
Just when you thought it couldn’t be done, there’s a new twist—ahem, fold—on a classic guessing game! Read the clues, then open triangular flaps to see animals hidden beneath.
Folded into a robust, surprisingly compact triangle, the book opens into a diamond shape with a simple, animal-sound–related hint, such as “Who says MOO?” printed across. Pull down one flap and then the other to reveal a charming red cow. Giving readers two separate flaps per spread extends the delicious anticipation of discovering who’s hiding, making it a slow, almost theatrical reveal. Underneath are elegant, painterly animals in bold, matte colors embellished with wispy dashes and tiny dots in contrasting colors, all of whom gaze directly toward viewers, making the book equally useful for playing a spirited game of peekaboo as well as guess who. No mere novelty, the flaps are integral to Mroziewicz’s animals, folding upward into perky ears on an impressionistic cat’s face or down for dangling turkey legs. Putting the flaps back in place is fiddly but easy enough, though the book’s eye-catching triangular shape makes shelving difficult. Each of the 11 animals has its own evocative typeface and accent color. Warm pink flaps open to a zany patchwork piggie; the snake’s “HISSSSSSS” is printed in wavering, slithery type.
Caregivers will flip over the innovative flaps, warm animal art, and opportunities to interact with little listeners . (Board book. 6 mos.-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-988-8341-57-3
Page Count: 22
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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