Unexceptional in content but at least unusually durable.
A sprightly color rhyme urges toddlers to climb aboard seven pop-up vehicles, from yellow bus to orange rocket.
Aside from a pink hot air balloon, which only floats, Litton piles on the speed—sending the red car “zipping down the street,” a white plane “zooming through the sky,” the rocket “speeding to the moon!” and so on. In very simple cartoon illustrations Verrall provides a smiling cast of clothed animal passengers (the plane is labeled “American Bearlines”), many of which are visible through windows in the die-cut pop-ups that hover an inch above each leaf. Both the undulating lines of verse and the pictures are printed on sturdy coated stock; better yet, since the various pop-up vehicles are reproduced underneath, even after little hands rip off the raised versions, all of the images and context remain. Except for a pair of chirping chicks on one spread (the faces underneath the pop-up feature disconcertingly gaping mouths), numeracy-promoting companion title One, Two, Baa Moo offers the same design feature.
Unexceptional in content but at least unusually durable. (Pop-up board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-68010-506-3
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 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
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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