Sturdy, engaging fun.
This Tiny Tab book offers toddlers a playful interactive game of hide-and-seek with substantial, oversized tabs.
Elly, Little Bubba’s toy elephant, has gone missing at her boy’s multispecies preschool, and the little frog must search the classroom to find her. Four large, semicircular tabs poke out from the side and top of the book, partially hiding the faces of his fellow animal classmates. Once pulled, the tabs reveal the entire creature and another friend or toy that is hiding in a die-cut section at the center of the page. Mrs. Jones, Bubba’s hippo teacher, suggests the frog check his bag, and Elly and Bubba are joyfully reunited. Ho’s cheery, digitally created cartoons will engage youngsters and offer a tour of preschool to the uninitiated to boot. Publishing simultaneously is Wickle Woo Has a Halloween Party, in which an owl host must find the fancy-dressed guests attending his Halloween bash. It’s full of equally satisfying interaction, although some of the costumed critters may be difficult for the youngest toddlers to recognize.
Sturdy, engaging fun. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7401-4
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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
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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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