Foster’s tour of New York is a delightful vocabulary builder; her London jaunt is a bit of a muddle.
Twenty-two typical and mostly iconic sights offer young readers a taste of the Big Apple.
This exceptionally sturdy and elegantly designed board book is a perfect introduction to the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of New York City. Foster is both an illustrator and a textile designer. This happy combination of talents lends itself to engagingly executed images that are simple and tasteful in design but rich in small detail. Strong lines and uncluttered images stand out against boldly colored backgrounds, some monochromatic, others patterned. The Statue of Liberty, her robes, hair, and crown a deep blue, holds her torch aloft, yellow and orange flames bright against a rich, red background. The red fruit and green leaves depicting New York’s affectionate namesake, the “Big Apple,” stand out against a simple, repeating aqua-blue pattern. The omnipresent pigeon is transformed from urban nuisance to a thing of beauty by virtue of simple, complementary patterns and color on its wing, belly, and collar, the blue and gray of the bird highlighted against a dazzling, yellow patterned background. Text is confined to simple identifications of pictured items: “traffic lights,” “fire hydrant,” “pizza,” “pretzel,” “Brooklyn Bridge,” “Empire State Building,” and “hotdog,” for example. Though the book is non-narrative, the exciting and easily recognized images should make this primer on urban life a favorite. Publishing simultaneously, Jane Foster’s London offers the same pigeon in mirror image as well as a sampler of that city’s iconic images. The language is American: “mailbox” instead of “pillar box” or “post box,” “tennis racket,” instead of “tennis racquet,” and “rain boots” instead of “Wellingtons” or “wellies.” The plate of “fish and chips” depicts not a deep-fried fillet but an entire fish with staring eye surrounded by yellow rectangles and green circles (chips and peas, but not mushy ones).
Foster’s tour of New York is a delightful vocabulary builder; her London jaunt is a bit of a muddle. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0488-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A disappointing twist on a popular theme. More gimmick than engaging.
This noisy board book is designed to thrill tots fascinated with all things construction.
A tactile backhoe digger is center stage on each of the five cutout pages, complete with flaps. Brief rhyming text describes the machine’s actions as it works throughout the day. Animal characters engaged in manual labor or operating other machinery—a bulldozer, crane, road roller, and dump truck—describe more work that goes on at a construction site in small speech bubbles. Finding the mouse in every scene adds to the fun. On each page, a little bird sporting a hard hat invites young builders to press various parts of the silicone digger to activate a range of distinct sounds. The digger’s track pad sounds different from the sound of its arm moving dirt. The problem is that the digger itself is passive; the track pad and arm don’t actually move. The machine stays in the same place on every spread. The caution light beeps but doesn’t light up. Savvy kids will quickly realize that all the sounds are accessible from the first spread without having to turn the pages. The sound is the most engaging part of the book, but with only five sounds, this feature won’t hold most youngsters’ attention for long.
A disappointing twist on a popular theme. More gimmick than engaging. (Novelty board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68010-684-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
Leave this developmentally inappropriate title on the shelf.
A board book for the toddlers of Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average.
As with Baby Loves Quarks! (2016) and its series companions, Spiro attempts to explain a topic too complex and abstract for toddlers. The bright-eyed brown-skinned cartoon child on the cover is inviting enough. But it’s hard to imagine the real baby who will be able to follow her example: “Baby takes three steps to the right, three steps forward, and three steps to the left.” The text can tell readers that “This pattern of steps is called an algorithm” when repeated every time the child wants to go to the toy box, but that does not mean babies can understand, much less replicate, the behavior of a computer program. As with many tech-oriented toys designed for gifted tots, a toy train is used to illustrate coding. Later pictures show other machines that rely on unseen computer code to function. There is nothing factually wrong here. And yes, parents and caregivers can follow the book’s example by inserting the language of science and coding in conversation. But 20 pages of oversimplified explanations of theoretical concepts, no matter how attractively packaged, will not translate to understanding until the child is past the concrete-operations stage of development—and even gifted toddlers just aren’t there yet.
Leave this developmentally inappropriate title on the shelf. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58089-884-3
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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