A lovely, if wakeful, bedtime book from France.
A little girl persuades a menagerie of animals to take a nap.
Simple, bold, painted pictures of wild animals include hand-lettered, full-caps declarations of their individual statements resisting naps. “I’M TOO BIG TO HAVE A NAP” declares an elephant whose form breaks the confines of the page. “HA, HA, HA. A NAP? WHAT A JOKE!” laughs a hyena. Other animals assert themselves, too, until the little girl from the jacket art confronts them all and gets them to close first one eye and then another, “AND THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT!” she says, smiling with pride as every animal falls asleep in a veritable peaceable-kingdom tableau. The illustrations are sublime in their restraint and fearless use of ample white space, and they adopt a style that’s reminiscent of Suzy Lee’s pictures, especially in their depictions of the little girl. Perhaps the only thing that could make this title even stronger would be enhanced focus on her character, as readers might wonder why she is the one in charge of these animals and their naptime. Still, so authoritative is she, they might just try closing one eye and then the other to see if that really is all there is to it.
A lovely, if wakeful, bedtime book from France. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55498-487-9
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery.
A troop of cats traverse a spooky landscape as they make their way to a party hosted by ghosts.
Each double-page spread shows the felines’ encounters with the likes of an owl, jack-o’-lanterns or a bat. One or two of these creepy meetings may be too abstract for the youngest readers, as the cats hear eerie noises with no discernible source on the page. The text, which consists of one rhyming couplet per scene, mostly scans despite a couple of wobbles: “Five black cats get a bit of a scare / As the flip-flapping wings of a bat fill the air.” The sleek, slightly retro art, likely created using a computer, depicts the cats cavorting at night through a shadowy cityscape, the countryside and a haunted house; they may scare some toddlers and delight others. A brighter color palette would have given the project a friendlier, more universal appeal. Luckily, the well-lit, final party scene provides a playful conclusion.
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-611-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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