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
Gorgeously whimsical and utterly convincing.
What happens after the midway closes and rides shut down for the night?
Forest animals—deer, bears, squirrels, a stoat, a badger or two, a wolf, a fox, rabbits, mice—peer from the shadows of trees by the field where trucks arrive to set up the county fair. They watch from the edge of the woods as the fairground fills with humans who stay late into the evening. The families leave, the caretaker pulls a large switch, and the fairground is, for a moment, dark and empty. Only the silhouettes of the creatures can be seen against the dark forest, along with many pairs of glowing eyes, moving toward the now-quiet fairground. A lively after-hours adventure follows. Two raccoons flip the switch on as furry fairgoers bring mushrooms, wildflowers, pine cones, and acorns for payment. Di Giorgio interprets Sterer’s wordless tale in a rich, soft palette, with dramatic full openings and multiple detailed frames conveying the excitement, the lights, the smells of popcorn and fairground foods, the sounds of rides and riders. Even the harmless flames of the Dante’s Inferno ride seem fun. Animals whirl in teacups, ride the roller coaster under the moon, and leave at dawn, tired, happy, and a bit sticky. The wolf, at the edge of a lake, releases a goldfish won at the ring-toss booth. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Gorgeously whimsical and utterly convincing. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1115-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful.
Life buzzes in a community garden.
Surrounded by apartment buildings, this city garden gets plenty of human attention, but the book’s stars are the plants and insects. The opening spread shows a black child in a striped shirt sitting in a top-story window; the nearby trees and garden below reveal the beginnings of greenery that signal springtime. From that high-up view, the garden looks quiet—but it’s not. “Sleepy slugs / and garden snails / leave behind their silver trails. / Frantic teams of busy ants / scramble up the stems of plants”; and “In the earth / a single seed / sits beside a millipede. / Worms and termites / dig and toil / moving through the garden soil.” Sicuro zooms in too, showing a robin taller than a half-page; later, close-ups foreground flowers, leaves, and bugs while people (children and adults, a multiracial group) are crucial but secondary, sometimes visible only as feet. Watercolor illustrations with ink and charcoal highlights create a soft, warm, horticulturally damp environment. Scale and perspective are more stylized than literal. McCanna’s superb scansion never misses, incorporating lists of insects and plants (“Lacewings, gnats, / mosquitos, spiders, / dragonflies, and water striders / live among the cattail reeds, / lily pads, and waterweeds”) with description (“Sunlight warms the morning air. / Dewdrops shimmer / here and there”). Readers see more than gardeners do, such as rabbits stealing carrots and lettuce from garden boxes.
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1797-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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