Quibbles aside, this volume presents appetizing produce in an engaging array.
This photographic study of color introduces both widely known and unusual fruits and vegetables.
“Carrots are ORANGE. / They are also PURPLE. // Look what else can be PURPLE!” Against white backgrounds, crisp photographs are captioned with the produce’s common names. Purple Passion asparagus, Royal Burgundy beans and a Black Velvet apricot vie for readers’ eyes on a crowded double-page spread; layouts illustrating the colors blue and black feature fewer specimens and more white space. Unusual, well-chosen examples such as the Red Dacca banana, Louisiana Long Green eggplant, and the fabulous, many-tentacled Buddha’s Hand citron challenge readers’ assumptions about familiar fruits and veggies and expand their knowledge of rarer varieties. Bass’ groupings illustrate the fact that a color’s name approximates, rather than pinpoints, its essential attributes. Thus, the Adirondack Blue and Russian Blue potatoes could easily have joined the purple denizens rather than reside with the blues. And the Black Beauty eggplant and Jewel black raspberries are, arguably, highly pigmented versions of the color purple. Two kale varieties—Redbor and Lacinato—are captioned as “Redbar” and “Lacinto.” Clusters and groups are sometimes pluralized (“Jersey blueberries”), sometimes not (“Latham raspberry.”) There’s no attempt to depict scale—so a Calabrese broccoli is shown about half the size of a Bartlett pear.
Quibbles aside, this volume presents appetizing produce in an engaging array. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62672-002-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Ideal for any community where children count.
A difficult concept is simply and strikingly illustrated for the very youngest members of any community, with a counting exercise to boot.
From the opening invitation, “Living in community, / it's a lot of FUN! / Lets count the ways. / Lets start with ONE,” Nagaro shows an urban community that is multicultural, supportive, and happy—exactly like the neighborhoods that many families choose to live and raise their children in. Text on every other page rhymes unobtrusively. Unlike the vocabulary found in A Is for Activist (2013), this book’s is entirely age-appropriate (though some parents might not agree that picketing is a way to show “that we care”). In A Is for Activist, a cat was hidden on each page; this time, finding the duck is the game. Counting is almost peripheral to the message. On the page with “Seven bikes and scooters and helmets to share,” identifying toys in an artistic heap is confusing. There is only one helmet for five toys, unless you count the second helmet worn by the girl riding a scooter—but then there are eight items, not seven. Seven helmets and seven toys would have been clearer. That quibble aside, Nagara's graphic design skills are evident, with deep colors, interesting angles, and strong lines, in a mix of digital collage and ink.
Ideal for any community where children count. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60980-632-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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