While Esbaum and Boldt can’t address every aspect of having a new baby around the house, they hit the relevant...
Dinosaur fans expecting a new baby in the family now have a guide to big-siblinghood.
Esbaum and Boldt address readers directly in the second person and play up the humor of the ups and downs of having a baby. “Good news!” is followed by “Bad news!”: “Your mama’s hatching a baby!” but “Babies take their sweet time.” Mama dino carries a car seat with an egg strapped inside. Three pages show that the wait is too much for the impatient sibling: dad rescues the egg from a hammer-and-screwdriver threat. Of course, the egg hatches, then it’s time to wait until the new baby is big enough to do anything other than scream, eat, burp, sleep, and poop (this last causes the sibling to run away screaming). Gradually, the book continues, it will be your job to teach the baby how to be a dino, but be careful: babies are copycats, so watch your behavior. The digital T. Rexes are each a different color, the new baby pink with a purple pacifier, the older sibling orange with a blue shirt and toys that suggest it may be a boy.
While Esbaum and Boldt can’t address every aspect of having a new baby around the house, they hit the relevant highlights—the serious, the horrific, and the hysterical—and tenderly portray the growing bond between the two children. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-53910-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Occasional badness has never been so good.
Outlaw or lawman…the mustache will reveal the truth!
“When Baby Billy was born, his family noticed something odd: / He had a mustache.” When they ask the nurse what it could mean, she answers that they’ll have to wait to “see whether it turns out to be a good-guy mustache or a bad-guy mustache.” At first, Billy’s a cowboy, protecting his cattle (teddy bear) from attack (by the family dog) and caring for injured animals (his torn bear). Obviously a good-guy mustache! He becomes a “ringleader. A Spanish painter. A sword fighter. And finally… / A man of the law.” But as he grows into toddlerhood, his mustache begins to curl at the ends and becomes a bad-guy mustache! After some cat burglary, “cereal” crime and train robbery (including the track), he’s caught and thrown in jail (a barred crib). After ages, his mother busts him out, and his parents explain that everyone has “a bad-mustache day” every once in a while. Heos’ simple and silly metaphorical tale of the terrible twos will definitely entertain parents and children older than Billy. Twos will, at least, giggle over every page of the digitally created, jewel-eyed, cartoon illustrations, with their mix of Saturday-morning slapstick, dramatic comic-book angles and mustachioed babies.
Occasional badness has never been so good. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-77357-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
Aimed at young readers at a stage when they are intensely curious about other people (and highly receptive to positive...
Unconditional love is the common denominator linking the several families whose lives are explored in this picture book.
Regardless of differences in appearance and composition, the families portrayed at meal times, while commuting, enjoying leisure time, and caring for one another are fundamentally more alike than not, a point that is reinforced throughout in rhyming couplets: “No matter where we live, or our color, creed, or name— / In each and every family, the love is all the same.” (Oddly, given the mention of “creed,” the illustrations are devoid of religious signifiers, such as crucifixes, yarmulkes, or headscarves.) Although there are no multigenerational households portrayed, there are traditional nuclear families of different races, a blended family, a transracially adopted child, same-sex parents, grandparents raising a child, a single mother and child, multiracial families, and a child in a wheelchair. While the text occasionally feels labored, the bright, clear illustrations have a stylish, slightly retro feel to them and truly steal the show. Children will enjoy spotting tiny details in the pictures and following families from page to page.
Aimed at young readers at a stage when they are intensely curious about other people (and highly receptive to positive messages about diversity), this British import is ideal for sparking natural conversations about differences. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-054-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
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