While quirky, unconventional, and artfully designed, this has more novelty factor than readability.
A young hero quests for a diamond in this alphabet book for the vintage-gaming set.
In pixelated, retro video game–style art, a plucky adventurer journeys through classic settings and scenarios. Each double-page spread presents one or two letters printed in a box along with the words starting with the letter. The majority indicate items to be found hidden in the image (genre-expected words such as “armor,” “potion,” and “skull” as well as all-around less-conventional words including “antenna” and “invaders”) with occasional action words (“exercise,” “heal,” “jump,” “upswing”). A few letters lend themselves less successfully to illustration (such as the forced “Q” page’s options of “quit” or “quest on”). The story is told through the art, as the hero is joined by a band of fellow sprites to cross the various video game maps. While some page turns offer logical transitions, some feel arbitrary, undermining story cohesion. Violence in the battles is mostly depicted through splashes of nonthreatening color denoting speed or magic attacks. The protagonist has brown hair and racially ambiguous light-brown skin and is joined by a white-presenting Viking type, a dark-skinned adventurer, and a light-skinned adventurer with floppy pink bangs. The fuzziness of the pixelated illustrations and crowded compositions make this a particularly poor offering for use with the typical board-book audience.
While quirky, unconventional, and artfully designed, this has more novelty factor than readability. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7030-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Good for a giggle from preschool readers despite its slight imperfections.
A brightly illustrated story told in rhyme about mixed-up robots getting ready for the day.
Holub and Dickason team up for another title echoing the style of their similarly formatted Hello Knights! and Hello Ninjas! (both 2018). Here, the titular robots are having trouble getting ready for the day. They put socks on top of shoes and even forget how to eat their cereal, pouring milk on their heads and flipping their bowls upside down on the table. The confusion comes to a climax in a double gatefold in which the robots realize that they need a reboot, correcting their routines. Young readers will delight in the silliness: underpants on heads, bathing in clothes. Holub’s rhyming text works well for the most part and includes some charming turns of phrase, such as “brushing bolts” in place of brushing teeth. Dickason’s illustrations use a consistent palette of mostly primary colors and feature 1960s-style robots drawn with antennae, motherboards on boxy chests, and wheels for feet. The pages are busy and packed, allowing for new discoveries upon each read, though this busyness argues for use with older toddlers. It’s not entirely clear where the robots are headed (school?) or whether or not they’re also ETs (they fly away on a spaceship), but the story is fun enough to overlook those muddled details.
Good for a giggle from preschool readers despite its slight imperfections. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1871-4
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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