After reading and counting, Carlo the cartoon giraffe explores yet another topic with preschoolers. As the curious young giraffe and his pals visit different locales, they see many colorful things. “Carlo sees yellow in the field.” The color yellow dominates this two-page spread, and various yellow objects sport a prominent tie-on tag that names them. In his wanderings, Carlo sees all the colors of the rainbow, plus black, white, and pink (although blue is rather short-changed). The colors draw children onward and keep them searching for more objects that match, making the lack of any real plot irrelevant. But this also makes the final page (“Carlo likes beeping” as he chases the cat) stand out like a sore thumb, as it is completely off course. Is this a clue to the next topic? The large font of the main text and the nametags serve preschoolers well, drawing their attention to the correct color while identifying its name in the text. Readers will delight in the simple, but detailed cartoon drawings. Spanyol creates a nice balance between rural and urban scenes in her illustrations. Youngsters will easily identify with the cute Carlo; from his artwork and pool ring, to his Mom and Dad and rubber galoshes, he is all kid. A great book for color recognition, though you might have to make up your own ending. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7636-2023-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
This charming, colorful counting tale of ten little fish runs full-circle. Although the light verse opens and closes with ten fish swimming in a line, page-by-page the line grows shorter as the number of fish diminishes one-by-one. One fish dives down, one gets lost, one hides, and another takes a nap until a single fish remains. Then along comes another fish to form a couple and suddenly a new family of little fish emerges to begin all over. Slick, digitally-created images of brilliant marine flora and fauna give an illusion of underwater depth and silence enhancing the verse’s numerical and theatrical progression. The holistic story bubbles with life’s endless cycle. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-63569-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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