Visually appealing, this offering will provide some enjoyable practice in categorizing, sorting and identifying differences.
This large, sturdy board book offers plenty of seek-and-find fun.
Each double-page spread is covered by a group of endearing, almost-identical animals and features questions designed to prompt readers to sort them and spot their differences. The initial pages, for instance, feature 11 very similar elephants and the questions: “Who has a curly little tail? And who is ready to go to a party? Who is big and who is small?” Children will easily divide the elephants into the categories of big and small, but they will need to look more closely to find the elephant with the curly tail and the one wearing a party hat. Each spread asks readers to identify different aspects or features of the animals, but there is always a partygoing creature to spot. In addition to finding the partygoer, the page of zebras asks children to find the happy and sad zebra and, rather surprisingly, the one “who just went to the bathroom.” The companion volume, In, Out, and All Around, follows a similar format, except that it focuses on relationships such as in, on, over and across instead of opposites. The translation (from the original Dutch) results in some awkward phrasing, but the point is always clear.
Visually appealing, this offering will provide some enjoyable practice in categorizing, sorting and identifying differences. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60537-149-8
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
Some things just can’t be done in a book; a three-dimensional toy with similar fastenings will serve the audience better.
A novelty book with a clever concept struggles to overcome the challenges of execution.
The zipper on the cover seen through a bright green frog's die-cut mouth raises expectations of delight, but the zipper is too short to fully unzip, making it an unsatisfying complement to the text (“See it shut, then open wide”). Subsequent pages offer a button that fastens a pig’s snout, a duck's Velcro-flap wing, kitty's snappy collar, and mouse tails that tie in a bow; all have similar problems. They are too fragile to stand up to rough handling, too stiff to manipulate easily, and beyond both the skills and patience of the low end of the suggested audience, “Age 3 and up.” The diagrammed directions on each spread are helpful only to adults who already know how to zip, button, or snap. A mouse on the page about tying a bow admits the difficulty, saying “You might need an adult to help you here.” One strong pull of the strings is liable to tear the page. Young children will enjoy mimicking the animal sounds and lifting the duck's wing, but the rest of the book will just be frustrating. Although the pages are thick, the spine is hollow and will likely be quickly damaged.
Some things just can’t be done in a book; a three-dimensional toy with similar fastenings will serve the audience better. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58925-554-8
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
Vivid and fun examples cannot make up for fundamental flaws.
The first two entries in the Shapes & Spaces series feature eye-catching and varied photos with lots of kid appeal. Unfortunately, the art, rhyming verse and development of the concepts fail to add up to solid learning tools.
“A square has every / side the same, // and lots of them / can make a game.” From flat squares to cubes, the photos show a wide variety of examples from the everyday world: an empty box serving as a toy house, blocks, the pattern of a soccer net. But even the youngest readers are sure to notice the glaring examples—window panes and a chocolate-covered cookie—that show rectangles instead of squares. The authors then inexplicably move from shapes to an exploration of stripes (a pattern!) about two-thirds into the book. Ladybugs Have Lots of Spots (978-1-55451-557-8), stronger than its companion, focuses only on circles, spheres and cylinders. “Round black tires, / lots of tread, / go on green / and stop on red.” The examples here are just as varied and kid-friendly: buttons, a hula hoop, the inside of a tube slide, polka dots, a cat’s collar, the holes in a watering can. Both books end rather abruptly and lack any note about how to use/extend the concepts with children.
Vivid and fun examples cannot make up for fundamental flaws. (Concept book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55451-580-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
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