Attractive, unusual, and unexpectedly informative.
Ziefert and Fatus explore and interpret familiar animal sounds.
Squarely in the growing genre of bilevel informational picture books, it combines simple text overlaid on the humorous collage-style illustrations with more advanced marginal notes intended to appeal to older children who want in-depth information. The very young can simply enjoy the colorful spreads with their simple rhymes: “Horses neigh. Donkeys bray. Mice squeak. Eek! Eek!" and older kids can satisfy their natural curiosity with the relatively complex marginal text. A wide range of animals from barnyard to jungle is illustrated, from cows through owls, whales, monkeys, sheep, lions, pigs, deer, geese, horses, and snakes. And be ready for surprises….How many readers knew that moose honk, just like geese? The marginal notes encourage readers to analyze the motive behind animal language, to make comparisons with human speech, and to think about animal and human body language and habits. Readers learn that snakes only make a sound when they're angry, so the author asks them to think about noises they make when they're angry and whether the angry sound is louder than a happy sound. This could spark an interesting discussion among preschoolers about the meaning of animal language and how thoughts, feelings, and desires are conveyed through speech, whether animal or human.
Attractive, unusual, and unexpectedly informative. (Informational picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60905-524-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Blue Apple
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
So sweet it’ll have readers heading for their toothbrushes.
Another entry in the how-much-I-love-you genre.
The opening spread shows a blue elephant-and-child pair, the child atop the adult, white hearts arcing between their uplifted trunks: “You’re a gift and a blessing in every way. / I love you more each and every day.” From there, the adult elephant goes on to tell the child how they are loved more than all sorts of things, some rhyming better than others: “I love you more than all the spaghetti served in Rome, // and more than each and every dog loves her bone.” More than stars, fireflies, “all the languages spoken in the world,” “all the dancers that have ever twirled,” all the kisses ever given and miles ever driven, “all the adventures you have ahead,” and “all the peanut butter and jelly spread on bread!” Representative of all the world’s languages are “I love you” in several languages (with no pronunciation help): English, Sioux, French, German, Swahili, Spanish, Hawaiian, Chinese, and Arabic (these two last in Roman characters only). Bold colors and simple illustrations with no distracting details keep readers’ focus on the main ideas. Dashed lines give the artwork (and at least one word on every spread) the look of 2-D sewn toys.
So sweet it’ll have readers heading for their toothbrushes. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8398-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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