A lovingly packaged collection of songs worth singing.
A collection of songs and rhymes for infants featuring an accompanying music CD and analysis of developmental benefits.
In her second book, Cobb (I’m a Little Teapot!, 1996) explains how this compilation borrows from 12 years of experience teaching preschool programs for infants, toddlers, parents and caregivers, paired with her research into cognitive science and language acquisition. Introductory information on child development serves as the supportive springboard for soon-to-be-singing parents. Cobb provides a short but fascinating look at the development of some of the brain’s processes, both before and after birth, several of which she refers to as brief “windows of opportunity”—the crucial periods of time when external stimulation can help the brain develop into its greatest potential. At these times especially, according to Cobb, rhymes, songs and stories can nurture an infant’s physical and emotional growth. A timely song can soothe and relax a crying newborn, engage and encourage creative playtime or build memory skills and introduce vocabulary words to foster early literacy. Because hearing is the first sense to develop—after about six months in the womb—a mother’s voice becomes supremely comforting to her child, so Cobb encourages even the tuneless among us to persevere because “[y]our voice is the voice your baby loves best.” For readers interested in teaching this parent-child program, Cobb also includes four helpful and detailed examples of classroom instructions with suggestions for recruitment, setting, pacing, record keeping and registration. The delightful and expansive collection of over 350 rhymes and songs—36 featured on the accompanying CD—and 10 stories will add to any parent or caregiver’s repertoire.
A lovingly packaged collection of songs worth singing.Pub Date: May 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-0969866619
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Black Sheep Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An adventurous work whose authentic voice celebrates the outdoors and everyday heroism.
A summer spent summiting the Adirondacks allows a teenager to reckon with grief.
Thirteen-year-old Finn Connelly’s summer is off to a rocky start. In addition to several incomplete class assignments—including a poetry project about heroes—he’s facing vandalism charges after an angry outburst at the local cemetery. To avoid paying thousands in fines that his family can’t spare, he reluctantly agrees to the proffered alternative: climbing all 46 Adirondack peaks over 4,000 feet by Labor Day accompanied by Seymour, the enthusiastic dog who belonged to the woman whose headstone he damaged. As Finn attempts the hikes, he wrestles with what it means to be a hero, a term often used for his deceased father, a local hockey legend, New York City firefighter, 9/11 first responder, and paramedic who died on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic. This verse novel is engaging and easy to follow. It encompasses varied structures, like haiku, sonnet, and found poetry. Other ephemera, such as letters, recipes, and school progress reports, create visual breaks evocative of a commonplace book. The first-person narration vividly conveys a disgruntled teenager’s feelings, including moments of humor and contemplation. The novel wrestles with loss and legacy intertwined with weighty events, challenges, and themes—PTSD, alcoholism, toxic masculinity—and their resulting impact on Finn’s emotional well-being. The supporting characters are encouraging adult role models. Characters present white.
An adventurous work whose authentic voice celebrates the outdoors and everyday heroism. (author’s note) (Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781547616398
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history.
In spare verse, Lowry reflects on moments in her childhood, including the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.
When she was a child, Lowry played at Waikiki Beach with her grandmother while her father filmed. In the old home movie, the USS Arizona appears through the mist on the horizon. Looking back at her childhood in Hawaii and then Japan, Lowry reflects on the bombings that began and ended a war and how they affected and connected everyone involved. In Part 1, she shares the lives and actions of sailors at Pearl Harbor. Part 2 is stories of civilians in Hiroshima affected by the bombing. Part 3 presents her own experience as an American in Japan shortly after the war ended. The poems bring the haunting human scale of war to the forefront, like the Christmas cards a sailor sent days before he died or the 4-year-old who was buried with his red tricycle after Hiroshima. All the personal stories—of sailors, civilians, and Lowry herself—are grounding. There is heartbreak and hope, reminding readers to reflect on the past to create a more peaceful future. Lowry uses a variety of poetry styles, identifying some, such as triolet and haiku. Pak’s graphite illustrations are like still shots of history, adding to the emotion and somber feeling. He includes some sailors of color among the mostly white U.S. forces; Lowry is white.
A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history. (author’s note, bibliography) (Memoir/poetry. 10-14)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-12940-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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