Emphasizing collaboration and creativity, this lovely little board book is a wonderful wintertime selection for toddlers and...
A group of friends turns a snowball disaster into some spontaneous fun.
A sweet-looking little mouse with a red-and-white–striped scarf stands alone in a gently sloping wintry landscape with only a snowball formed by a small die-cut circle for company. The text reads, simply, “A snowball.” A cat carrying a backpack and cane soon arrives to help make it bigger. Next, a pig in a tuxedo and top hat is recruited to help push it. The three push the now-giant die-cut snowball over the top of a hill and right onto a little rabbit enjoying a carrot. Soon, everyone is plunging down the hill as the snowball gains momentum until it all comes to a screeching halt with a giant “SPLAT!” “Now what?” reads the text as the animal friends brush themselves off and stare at a big pile of snow littered with objects, including a scarf, hat, carrot, cane, and backpack. Inspired, the friends use the snow and the objects they all lost in the fall to fashion a snowman. The simple, clever plot is conveyed through sparse text, with the force of the story coming from the charming illustrations and the growing die-cut circle representing the snowball.
Emphasizing collaboration and creativity, this lovely little board book is a wonderful wintertime selection for toddlers and preschoolers. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-988-8240-42-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
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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