While the book is undeniably playful, toddler readers won’t come away from the experience with much hope of identifying any...
Youngsters can see what their peers eat around the world.
The first double-page spread features lunchboxes from around the globe arrayed in an arc over a smiling planet Earth; each has a flap for readers to open. The subsequent eight pages give readers a closer look at dishes from Brazil, India, and Italy, to name a few. One line of a rhyming couplet floats at the top of each page: “In China, some lunches are steamed and some are stir-fried. / In France, we have a bit of fruit and cheese on the side.” Below each line, six or seven containers appear with more flaps that open to reveal a variety of signatures dishes from the featured nation. South Korean lunchboxes, for example, may contain simmered seaweed, kimchi, and gimbap (glossed parenthetically, as are many non-English terms, as “vegetable roll”). Elio’s cheery, whimsical cartoons in vibrant colors are fun to look at, but many foods may not look much like what the captions say they are; the stylized peanut-butter–and-jelly sandwich and dinosaur-shaped chicken tenders on the American page come immediately to mind. The whole, oblong package includes a die-cut handle at the top to give it a lunchbox look and feel.
While the book is undeniably playful, toddler readers won’t come away from the experience with much hope of identifying any of these foods in the real world. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1594-2
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Toddlers will enjoy identifying the healthy vegetables—and they may even be stirred to eat them when they appear at...
Rhyming text and clever colorful illustrations by a mother-daughter duo feature in this delightful board book.
When dark-haired, white-skinned Allie goes into her garden one morning to harvest vegetables, she finds some creatures hiding there. Will there be any vegetables left for Allie? “I walked to my garden / where the corn grew high, / and a noisy black crow / went flying by.” Daughter Osborn’s (Hungry Henry, 2016) striking mixed-media artwork brings together three kinds of illustrations on the same page: a pen-and-ink cartoon Allie and her basket, photographs of fresh, delicious vegetables (corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and more), and expressive animals cleverly carved from vegetables. The crow is made from an eggplant, and there’s a floppy-eared bunny made from a potato, a carrot fox, and a cucumber-and–bell pepper snake. The vibrant vegetables stand out on the white background on all the pages.
Toddlers will enjoy identifying the healthy vegetables—and they may even be stirred to eat them when they appear at dinnertime. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-936669-53-0
Page Count: 14
Publisher: blue manatee press
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Like the little bear in Frank Asch’s Pizza (2015), toddlers will be left with an appetite for seconds. And thirds….
Following a stack of Pancakes! (2016), Nieminen dishes up ingredients and instructions for another tasty treat.
Equally suitable for real or imaginary kitchens, this recipe in board-book format begins with geometrically stylized representations of ingredients (“1 teaspoon of sugar,” for instance, is represented by a round-topped white triangle) and required bowls, measuring cups, and other gear. It then goes on to steps for mixing, kneading, and rising the dough, pre-cooking the crust, adding sauce (from a jar) and toppings, and baking until done. Labels and captions identify everything and explain each step in turn. Prospective chefs too young to do the actual cooking can pretend or follow along by using heavy-duty pull tabs to simulate pouring and mixing, then “knead” a smooth plastic pad, set the oven temperature with a geared wheel (and, prompts a safety note, an adult’s help, as “real ovens are hot!”), lift a flap to check the pie, and finally pull out a wedge-shaped slice when it’s finished. “Delicious!”
Like the little bear in Frank Asch’s Pizza (2015), toddlers will be left with an appetite for seconds. And thirds…. (Informational novelty. 2-4)Pub Date: May 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7148-7409-8
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Phaidon
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
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