With a melodic and motherly voice, this gentle and captivating picture book welcomes a little baby into the world.
As a tiny infant finds his hands, Leigh’s first picture book captures parental hopes and dreams for their newborn with a simple, repeating form. “What will you make with those hands? / What will you make with those beautiful hands?” The future is unveiled, and Côté’s illustrations show him using his hands to build with blocks, make art, and create a sandcastle with a friend. This cherished little baby goes on to find his “darling” nose, his “delightful” mouth and his “lovely” voice. Simple and spare illustrations with the look of watercolor and ink depict the curious new baby. As the infant discovers each new body part, the illustrations show the smiling, nearly-naked tot. With the turn of a page, the joyful and active years to come are depicted with little white space, full of the adventures of childhood. Each time he explores something new, he grows up a little more in “the future,” eventually giving flowers to the sweet friend from his sandcastle-building days. That she looks just like his mother may confuse some children but emphasizes that the forecasts are his parents’ dreams based on their own recollections.
A lovely choice for new babies and their parents. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8979-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Even more alliterative hanky-panky from the creators of The Wonky Donkey (2010).
Operating on the principle (valid, here) that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, Smith and Cowley give their wildly popular Wonky Donkey a daughter—who, being “cute and small,” was a “dinky donkey”; having “beautiful long eyelashes” she was in consequence a “blinky dinky donkey”; and so on…and on…and on until the cumulative chorus sails past silly and ludicrous to irresistibly hysterical: “She was a stinky funky plinky-plonky winky-tinky,” etc. The repeating “Hee Haw!” chorus hardly suggests what any audience’s escalating response will be. In the illustrations the daughter sports her parent’s big, shiny eyes and winsome grin while posing in a multicolored mohawk next to a rustic boombox (“She was a punky blinky”), painting her hooves pink, crossing her rear legs to signal a need to pee (“winky-tinky inky-pinky”), demonstrating her smelliness with the help of a histrionic hummingbird, and finally cozying up to her proud, evidently single parent (there’s no sign of another) for a closing cuddle.
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-60083-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Turner adds another title to his picture-book series that highlights the miracles in the mundane (When God Made Light, 2018, etc.).
In the vein of children’s-bookshelf stalwart Oh, the Places You’ll Go, Turner’s rhyming text includes both prayers and life advice for a growing child, beginning with infancy and moving on to adolescence. At times the rhyme and meter are strained, muddling meaning and making the tempo feel occasionally awkward when read aloud. Overall, though, the book executes its mission, presenting Christian theological truths within the rhythmic inspirational text. For this third series installment Turner’s text is paired with a new illustrator, whose bright illustrations of wide-eyed children have great shelf appeal. While David Catrow’s previous illustrations in the series featured effervescent black protagonists, the child in Barnes’ illustrations appears white, though she occupies an otherwise diverse world. While illustrated as a prayer from a mother for her daughter, the text itself is gender neutral.
Though it will never usurp Dr. Seuss, it will still find a home where Christian families of faith seek inspirational picture books. (Picture book/religion. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-52565058-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION
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