A cute, serviceable game.
The iconic white cat enjoys the summer season.
Hello Kitty is here to soak up the sun and appreciate all that summertime has to offer in this mix-and-match board book. The book's split pages make it possible for readers to fiddle around with Kitty's outfits, scenery, and activities. It's entirely possible to read the book straight through and witness sensible situations, such as Kitty playing baseball and hitting home runs and dressing up as a bee for the summer parade, but it's better fun to make the character dress up like a bee to hit a home run. The pictures are all on recto, with the text on verso also flipping with the flaps: “Hello Kitty goes swimming / to get some yummy ice cream.” The book's binding is solidly constructed and will certainly stand up to several mix and matches. This one would probably serve well as a travel book for little ones to play with in the car on the way to their own summer adventures.
A cute, serviceable game. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0047-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
Just as visually appealing as the app at first glance, and possibly even more durable—but showing considerable fall-off in...
The blue cat that starred in the excellent app A Present for Milo (2010) makes an awful crossover from the digital domain.
Printed on extra-sturdy boards with folded (rather than glued) flaps, the episode sends Milo in search of his missing ball of string. Led by a helpful mouse, he discovers piles of yarn in various geometric shapes that, once each flap is lifted, reveal common items of the same shape. These range from a square slice of cheese to a triangular piece of pizza to a rectangular granola bar. Meanwhile, behind Milo, two other mice roll up the continual line of multicolored yarn that loops through each cartoon scene so that by the end the ball is restored. Not only is the prose numbingly wooden (“Little mouse,” says Milo, “will you help me find my ball of string?”), it is confusingly phrased. Milo rejects the square because it has “four sides,” which doesn’t distinguish it from the rectangle, and the oval egg isn’t like a ball because it’s “sort of round-ish but also long-ish.” Moreover, the concluding general romp comes off less as a resolution to the plotline than filler for the final spread. In marked contrast to his app incarnation, Milo is no more than a static presence in the art, his body shape even duplicated in some scenes rather than redrawn.
Just as visually appealing as the app at first glance, and possibly even more durable—but showing considerable fall-off in narrative quality and awareness of audience. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: June 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60905-209-6
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Blue Apple
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though a bit of a bust in the concept department, it’s a good way to set the stage for friends like George and Martha, Frog...
A new pair of best friends for the board-book crowd is introduced in this Australian import.
Lionel (a lion, natch) and Molly (a tiny mouse) make an improbable pair of best friends. Despite the size and dietary differences, though, they like the same things: jumping in puddles, picking apples, soaking up the sun, and watching leaves fall. Each activity is conveniently paired with a color—blue, green, yellow, red, respectively. Unfortunately, the tactile elements on each spread are unrelated to the color. For example, the puddle-jumping spread shows off a shiny fuchsia umbrella, while the “big blue puddle” is not highlighted. On the next page, Lionel's fuzzy yellow belly will attract little fingers, while the green apple referred to in the text is hidden in an equally green tree. In fact, recognizing and naming the colors is incidental to this simple story of friendship. Companion Opposites works somewhat better, though again the tactile elements seem arbitrarily chosen instead of carefully used to direct the child's attention to essential concepts. For example, on the page that says “Lionel is BIG. / Molly is small,” the bees are both fuzzy and, in one case, bigger than the mouse. The sweet tales of friendship overcome these minor flaws. Lionel and Molly's friendship will be a useful model for toddlers who are just starting to move beyond parallel play to social interaction.
Though a bit of a bust in the concept department, it’s a good way to set the stage for friends like George and Martha, Frog and Toad, and Elephant and Piggie. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0049-4
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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