Sweet and charming yet not particularly stirring.
Animals form a band ’cause “a hoedown is better when we’re all together!”
Shaped pages in increasingly larger sizes are layered so that when the book is closed parts of all are visible. Sweet, cartoon-style illustrations in soft colors depict farm animals playing instruments. First up, there’s a banjo-playing cat. At each page turn a new animal joins in: a pig, a sheep, a horse, and a cow. On the final page the band is assembled, and they’ll “jig and jive until we feel alive.” This spread also includes three flaps, with a guitar, a tambourine, and a small drum respectively. The other book in this duo, Swimming Hole Party, has parallel wording and is similarly fashioned of shaped and layered pages. Here it is jungle animals that will one by one come together. Appropriately, the colors used are a little stronger than in the barnyard outing, though they still have a gentle baby quality. By the final page a monkey, a hippo, a lion, a giraffe, and an elephant have assembled at the swimming hole: “A sunny day is better when we’re all together!” Here too there are three flaps, with a ball, a boat, and a rubber duck respectively. It is hard to imagine the flaps in either book will last long.
Sweet and charming yet not particularly stirring. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5189-2
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring through rhymed puns and sentimental art.
The title sets the scene for what’s to come: The owl asks the owlet as they fly together, “WHOO loves you?”; the kangaroo and joey make each other “very HOPPY”; and the lioness and cub are a “PURRRFECT pair.” Most of the puns are both unimaginative and groanworthy, and they are likely to go over the heads of toddlers, who are not know for their wordplay abilities. The text is set in abcb quatrains split over two double-page spreads. On each spread, one couplet appears on the verso within a lightly decorated border on pastel pages. On the recto, a full-bleed portrait of the animal and baby appears in softly colored and cozy images. Hearts are prominent on every page, floating between the parent and baby as if it is necessary to show the love between each pair. Although these critters are depicted in mistily conceived natural habitats and are unclothed, they are human stand-ins through and through.
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers. (Board book. 6 mos-2)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-1374-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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