While babies will always enjoy seeing images of other tots, the whole project feels like what’s routinely found on social...
A multiethnic series of babies and toddlers are dressed up and photographed in various outfits, from a bear to a watermelon.
While not up to Anne Geddes’ level of creativity, the costumes range from the impromptu (a white baby playing with a toy saxophone is a “musician”) through the store-bought (the iconic Halloween pumpkin get-up) to the homemade (a crocheted snail outfit). A simple, one- or two-word caption set in large, black or white type floats at the top of the page. Many of the babies are photographed on white backgrounds, which gives the image a spacious look, but a few look as if they were staged in a photographer’s studio with copious props nearby. Laudably, just over half of the tots appear to be children of color, including “Princess” and “Dinosaur.” One dubious inclusion—“Safari Guide”—presents a toddler with light brown skin in a pith helmet posing with a box camera and a large dog wearing a fake lion’s mane. Given the colonial roots of safari in its modern, Western understanding, this feels like a very poor choice indeed.
While babies will always enjoy seeing images of other tots, the whole project feels like what’s routinely found on social media on or after Oct. 31, with some unfortunate stereotyping to boot. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1461-2
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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