Toddlers will fawn over this board book.
Follow a young deer as it explores a wintry landscape.
Enveloped in a puffy, padded cover that matches the softness of the delicate watercolor images within, the book depicts a fawn partaking in a mild snowy adventure. Pale white backgrounds of thinly lined, gray-washed trees and snowdrifts are tranquil while the tawny fawn’s coat, the red rose hips, and the snow-encrusted, olive-green leaves provide notes of colorful contrast. Limiting herself to one two-word phrase per page, all beginning with the word “snow,” the author manages to tell a fairly concise story, though some combinations feel more germane than others. After emerging from a clearing, a “snow chase” after bunnies leads the fawn through a “snow find”—a meeting with songbirds perched on a branch—and into peril as the fawn leaves the safe forest for a “snow silent” open field. Showing the fawn small and alone amid the empty white landscape communicates just enough drama for a young audience but also warmly resolves it as the fawn finds its way back to parents, nuzzling and “snow safe.” Though there’s some mild anthropomorphization, the adventures feel plausible enough until the buck is shown caring for the fawn, which is not accurate. Still, if readers aren’t sticklers for authenticity, they’ll delight in finding the woodland animals and in that precious spotted deer.
Toddlers will fawn over this board book. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0834-4
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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