Fun and enriching.
There’s plenty to do in this vocabulary-building, question-and-answer, lift-the-flap guide to color.
This well-conceived primer is not a great choice for the youngest toddlers, whose undeveloped fine-motor skills would doubtless lead to torn and missing flaps in no time. But precocious young readers with some dexterity will enjoy solving the riddles and revealing the answers in this colorful effort. The verso of each double-page spread features a patterned field of saturated color. Four flaps on the page pose questions, with answers beneath, about items of that color. The recto names the featured color above a picture rendered primarily in that color. Embedded in that picture is one more flap concealing an item of a different color—“Oops! These flowers are not red! They’re blue!”—setting up the color scheme for the next spread. Each flap features a thoughtful notch to help little fingers gain purchase. This format—four questions and answers, plus one surprise that doesn’t match, every two pages—means the book is a longer read than comparably sized board books, which may well challenge a toddler’s attention span. As there’s no storyline, however, there’s no harm done if a child doesn’t make it all the way through on every reading. The colors pop, as they should; the artwork is pleasant and mostly representational (e.g., foods and flowers) with the exception of animals, who are cartoony, cute, and full of personality.
Fun and enriching. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948418-19-5
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Clever Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Genial starter nonfiction.
Panels activated by sliding tabs introduce youngsters to the human body.
The information is presented in matter-of-fact narration and captioned, graphically simple art featuring rounded lines, oversized heads and eyes, and muted colors. The sliding panels reveal new scenes on both sides of the page, and arrows on the large tabs indicate the direction to pull them (some tabs work left and right and others up and down). Some of the tabs show only slight changes (a white child reaches for a teddy bear, demonstrating how arms and hands work), while others are much more surprising (a different white child runs to a door and on the other side of the panel is shown sitting on the toilet). The double-page spreads employ broad themes as organizers, such as “Your Body,” “Eating Right,” and “Taking Care of Your Body.” Much of the content is focused on the outside of the body, but one panel does slide to reveal an X-ray image of a skeleton. While there are a few dark brown and amber skin tones, it is mostly white children who appear in the pages to demonstrate body movements, self-care, visiting the doctor, senses, and feelings. The companion volume, Baby Animals, employs the same style of sliding panels to introduce youngsters to little critters and their parents, from baboons to penguins.
Genial starter nonfiction. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-2-40800-850-5
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The importance of the STEM fields in our world cannot be overstated. But the importance of understanding early childhood...
Another board book attempts to communicate complex scientific ideas to very young children.
This book and its companions, all aimed at very young children, presume the intended audience is familiar with conventional symbols to convey information, as all the explanations are made visually by means of arrows that indicate airflow. It stretches the imagination to believe toddlers will follow explanations delivered that way. Even more baffling is the assumption that toddlers have in their vocabulary arsenal words such as “flow,” “angle,” “deflect,” “lift,” and “thrust.” Further complicating the attempt is the oversimplification necessary to communicate to youngsters. Boiling concepts down to such statements as “This ship is full of fuel. / If the fuel goes out, // the ship goes forward” perhaps ought to have indicated the futility of this particular effort. In companion General Relativity, there is a page with horizontal and vertical lines forming a grid. Many toddlers might identify this as a piece of mosquito netting, but they would be wrong, as it is in fact “flat space.” Later they will also find out that “Mass drags space.” And “Space drags mass.” The explanations in Newtonian Physics and Quantum Physics are no better. Adults wishing to introduce children to the laws of physics will be more effective—and have more fun—playing with blocks, making waves in the bathtub, and launching paper planes into the air.
The importance of the STEM fields in our world cannot be overstated. But the importance of understanding early childhood development when writing for preschoolers cannot be overstated either. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5625-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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