Overall, a visually stunning book with a lively storyline whose final pages may leave readers puzzled.
What do you get when you mix pots, pans, spoons, and some creative friends? Music!
On the first page of this book, an unnamed owl brandishes a pair of spoons and a pot and declares to a friend, “I’m making music!” So begins a tale of young bird children raiding the kitchen for instruments ranging from pot lids to spatulas to colanders until they form a riotous, joyful band. Delicately rendered in watercolor and ink, Stehr’s characters are colorful, juvenile birds whose facial expressions range from delighted to startled to disappointed. While the use of repeated onomatopoeia coupled with the children’s cooperation and creativity gives the narrative a playful momentum, the insertion of an adult character, the owl’s parent, interrupts the flow, ultimately making the ending feel abrupt and disjointed. Additionally, the book is a translation from the French, and in places the English feels stilted, particularly on the final two pages when the characters suddenly adopt a more adult intonation. The onomatopoeic words are playfully scattered on the page like popcorn, but by the end, they become so dense that it is difficult to read out loud.
Overall, a visually stunning book with a lively storyline whose final pages may leave readers puzzled. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77657-136-9
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
More a sure-fire flop than a patriotic primer.
It's unlikely little ones will garner much appreciation for the U.S. of A. from these trivial riddles.
Rhymes cover a gamut of iconic (and not-so-iconic) images associated with the United States of America. The design is developmentally unfortunate for the audience, with a riddle on the right-hand page of each spread. Each page turn reveals the answer and begins the set-up for the next example, creating a disconnect between riddle and image. Although visual clues indicate a riddle's answer—an eagle's wings appear around the box of text that contains the verse, for instance—it doesn't work for a board-book audience. Clichés abound (apple pie, cowboy), while a tour of landmarks provides only a superficial overview. Phony enthusiasm is the order of the day. “Its pretty flowers / smell so sweet / this thorny flower / can't be beat.” (And since when has the rose been a symbol of the United States?) The necessary superficiality results in an experience almost devoid of meaning; the focus on the White House, for example, skips any mention of the country's Commander in Chief. “In Washington, D.C. / you're sure to see / this special house / and a cherry tree!”
More a sure-fire flop than a patriotic primer. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-179-3
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The opening spread looks plain and ordinary: “First pig building a house,” says the text, as a pig builds a modest thatched...
This sweet little bare-bones version of “The Three Pigs” places readers in an active role.
The opening spread looks plain and ordinary: “First pig building a house,” says the text, as a pig builds a modest thatched hut. Black pen lines give shading and texture to pale watercolors, surrounded by calming white space. Soon the pig’s inside the hut, gazing happily out the window. But spread three brings an invitation. The left-hand page says, merely, “One wolf huffing and puffing,” and the book’s subtitle is the key here—for there’s no wolf to be seen. The right-hand page says “HUFF & PUFF” in lined block letters, and the ampersand’s lower circle is a cut-out hole. When the reader blows through the hole, the reward is a sad and perturbed pig with loose straw floating down through the air. The reader/wolf blew down the hut! The second pig suffers the same fate. Tradition prevails as the third house, made of brick, is too strong to succumb to air. Does the reader/wolf end up defeated? Nope—Rueda introduces a new result of blowing, one familiar to many toddlers and connected to gustatory joy all around.Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0170-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
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