Soft-focus illustrations in acrylic and colored pencil introduce Little Bunny as he and his young animal friends play at night in the forest. Little Bunny learns that the dark is not something scary but instead presents opportunities to dig in the dirt with Freddie the fox and play in the moonlight with a family of dormice. A friendly owl named Olive reminds Little Bunny that it isn’t really safe for little rabbits to be out alone at night, and she leads him back to his burrow, where his parents are waiting for him. The plodding story is rather old-fashioned and definitely of the forest-fairy-tale subgenre, as predator and prey play together as friends, and the owl warns the bunny and leads him home rather than having him for dinner. The book’s raison d'être is its changing-picture format, used for the cover illustration and for three spreads inside. The circular changing-picture inserts cleverly shift to a new picture by lifting a tree-shaped insert at the right-hand side of the page. Toddlers and younger preschoolers will be fascinated by this quick-change effect within the page, as the bunny and the squirrel transform into a fox, or the bunny and his mother change into the rabbit family asleep in their cozy burrow. Sweet but far from essential. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5263-0
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery.
A troop of cats traverse a spooky landscape as they make their way to a party hosted by ghosts.
Each double-page spread shows the felines’ encounters with the likes of an owl, jack-o’-lanterns or a bat. One or two of these creepy meetings may be too abstract for the youngest readers, as the cats hear eerie noises with no discernible source on the page. The text, which consists of one rhyming couplet per scene, mostly scans despite a couple of wobbles: “Five black cats get a bit of a scare / As the flip-flapping wings of a bat fill the air.” The sleek, slightly retro art, likely created using a computer, depicts the cats cavorting at night through a shadowy cityscape, the countryside and a haunted house; they may scare some toddlers and delight others. A brighter color palette would have given the project a friendlier, more universal appeal. Luckily, the well-lit, final party scene provides a playful conclusion.
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-611-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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