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COLORS

Name: COLORS
Author: Gloria Fowler
ISBN: 978-1-9344-2977-8

by Gloria Fowler & illustrated by Alexander Girard ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2012

There are enough color-concept books for young children to overflow a crayon box without adding this developmentally...

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Illustrator Girard's visually striking work suffers from uninspired text.

The chunky compilation features crisp lines and patterns. Bare of references to Girard's career, the introduction seeks to provide a total visual experience rather than an introduction to the artist. Slight rhyming phrases detract rather than enhance, implying relationships that don't exist. “A daisy in the garden, / green and growing; / multi-colored friends, / where are they going?” illustrates, first, a stylized daisy-woman and then a tiny army of three-dimensional figures, for instance. The flimsy spine proves too weak to support repeated readings of the 58-page book. Some descriptions fail to identify the shades featured in the illustrations (this is a book about colors), and the text itself is often confusing, peppered with oddly placed commas. “Alexander Girard, shows us colors in this book.”

There are enough color-concept books for young children to overflow a crayon box without adding this developmentally inappropriate offering to the mix. (Board book. 3-4)

Pub Date: June 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-9344-2977-8

Page Count: 58

Publisher: Ammo

Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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TASTE THE CLOUDS

by Rita Marshall ; illustrated by Paolo Domeniconi ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2016

While a lovely package, it will float over the heads of most board-book readers.

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A child experiences synesthesia in a surrealistic landscape.

In each double-page spread, Marshall poses a poetic query; the first is: “Do you believe I can touch the stars?” The brown-haired, white youngster, wearing the same blue dress and accompanied by a faithful dog in each scene, plucks a star out of the sky and rides on the back of a giant owl in response. When asked to consider whether it’s possible to “smell a rainbow,” readers see the child peer over the edge of an oversized cauldron as the steam forms an arcing rainbow. Domeniconi’s jewel-toned, Magritte-inspired paintings employ a haunting light and playfully illustrate the words. A highlight is the page (and also the cover) that realizes the line “Taste the clouds?” as the tyke picks a cloud from a tree as if it were fruit. As captivating as the images are, will very young children, who are still learning to describe their own senses, be able to make the poetic leap to seeing music and listening to colors? The text becomes muddy at the end, and it is unclear who is responding to whom in the book’s questioning format.

While a lovely package, it will float over the heads of most board-book readers. (Board book. 3-4)

Pub Date: March 8, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-56846-285-1

Page Count: 14

Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company

Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
WAKE UP, WEATHER
by Rita Marshall ; illustrated by Monique Felix

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PIGS IN A PICKLE

by Hans Wilhelm ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020

This story’s got a moral that’s actually true to life.

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Three pigs find themselves trying but not always succeeding in this story of perseverance.

They fall out of boats, spin out of control, and often fall down, but in the end, these “pigs in a pickle know what to do. / They try again—they carry through!” In a tale that combines aspects of “This Little Piggy” and “Humpty Dumpty,” Wilhelm’s rhyming text echoes the childhood classics. Impressively, the story conveys its message about perseverance without ending sappily with a success story. In Wilhelm’s take, when you give it your “best shot,” realistically, “sometimes it works… / …and sometimes it does not.” The piggy who falls off the merry-go-round gets back up and tries again—and again he falls off. What a lesson for little readers! Salcedo’s three pigs each have their own distinctive look: one with large glasses, the second with pigtails, and the third with a round tummy. Each illustration is filled with a lot of movement thanks to well-placed lines, swirls, and squiggles, a necessary inclusion given the copious stumbling, twirling, and falling. There is also a lovely level of detail, from the suits on the playing cards to the tiny hose and ladder on the toy fire truck, though this visual complexity gears this book to the older segment of the board-book audience.

This story’s got a moral that’s actually true to life. (Board book. 3-4)