Useful when apple trees bloom and again during apple-picking season.
Simple factual information is delivered on sturdy board pages about a topic popular in most early-childhood curricula.
One or two short sentences per page simply outline the process of growing apples: planting the seed, tending the seedling, nurturing the sapling, blossoming, pollination, harvest, and beyond. Proper scientific terms label illustrations of a cut apple and blossom. A series of numbered pictures show how a blossom becomes fruit. An added fact in a smaller font (“It takes two to three years for a seed to become a sapling”) on each spread extends the usefulness of the book beyond the board-book audience. Some of the cheery illustrations may elicit more questions than can be answered by the text, however. There is no explanation as to why two children are staking the sapling, for instance. The children depicted are a multiracial mix, and several appear in more than one picture. All are included in the apple-picking scene, but that is not the end of the book. The next spreads show a truck being loaded to deliver apples to market, then children at a table eating foods made from apples, and finally an apple tree in all its stages with the adage “Good things are worth waiting for!”
Useful when apple trees bloom and again during apple-picking season. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-57875-8
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
More information than toddlers will sit still for; not enough for preschoolers who are outgrowing board books.
An introduction to the body for the youngest readers.
It’s an endlessly fascinating topic, but here it is explained in wordy and needlessly exclamatory detail. On the opening spread three children play: One flies a kite, another plays hopscotch, and a third hangs upside down from a branch while the text explains that “your body can do so many things!” Basic facts about each body part are explained on subsequent spreads—more or less. A spread devoted to the belly button gives no hint to its original purpose. A busy park scene with all the characters and summary text that emphasizes the importance of “Lots of sleep, good food, and plenty of exercise” ends this compendium. McDonald’s attempts to be inclusive don’t quite succeed. A brown-skinned boy playing wheelchair basketball is used to explain arm joints, and there are several other children of color in the book. But on the page about hearing, the brown-skinned tot’s prominent ears and his placement in a tree make him look more like a monkey than a child—an unfortunate association. Many spreads include a question that relates to the topic but could also prove distracting. An additional fact on each spread set in a smaller font is clearly for older children or grown-ups, not toddlers.
More information than toddlers will sit still for; not enough for preschoolers who are outgrowing board books. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6636-8
Page Count: 27
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
The lesson that a lot goes into producing the food we eat is a valuable one, and the trucks make it go down easy.
Young heavy-equipment fanciers can feast on this agriculturally oriented entry in the Finn’s Fun Trucks series.
Farmer Sandy introduces children to some of the heavy gear used to grow and harvest the produce that they eat. Following the same format as the other books in the series, Sandy observes that each machine has its own specific purpose and then challenges readers to guess its function. Featured equipment includes a tractor, plow, spreader, harvester, and baler. Each machine is named on verso and pictured opposite, with three key components labelled; readers are asked to guess what each one does. The page with the diagram then folds out to show the equipment at work, with an explanation of its use. The simple, utilitarian artwork is easily interpreted, and the book introduces some useful industrial and agrarian vocabulary. The fold-out flaps will engage readers eager to see the machinery in action. “A plow attaches to the back of the tractor. It turns the soil over so crops will grow tall and healthy,” for example. After presenting his farm fleet, Sandy, a white man with a gray beard, asks, “Can you guess what they can do when they all work together?” Answer: “They can grow all kinds of great food.” The simultaneously publishing Rapid Responders gives emergency vehicles the same treatment.
The lesson that a lot goes into producing the food we eat is a valuable one, and the trucks make it go down easy. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1488-9
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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