Cute animals and felt tabs can’t redeem this confusing effort.
A cheerful teal-blue mouse greets an orange monkey, a red lion, a pink flamingo, a blue elephant, and a yellow giraffe.
The animals are not named. Instead, four-line rhymes describe an emotion sometimes associated with the predominate color on the page. So “orange is excitement”; red corresponds to bravery; “pink is oh-so-playful”; blue is (predictably) sadness; and “yellow is bright happiness.” The rhymes mostly scan, though the toddler audience may not understand the similes embedded in each verse to explain abstract concepts. Only five colors are featured rather than the typical crayon-box eight. In companion title Let’s Play, Funny Flamingo (published simultaneously) each of the nine animals included rates only two lines as the verses explore opposites. Felt tabs embedded in the pages of both books help little people turn the pages. However, the positioning of the tabs in Happy Giraffe places them after the corresponding color. So, for example, when a child grasps the orange tab and turns the page, the page revealed is all about red. The real purpose of both books is to extol the virtue of friendship, a message that’s almost lost amid the lessons about colors and feelings. Still, finding the mouse on each spread can become a game for young children.
Cute animals and felt tabs can’t redeem this confusing effort. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-610-7
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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