This tale’s gorgeous images and graceful poetry should inspire travelers to see the world’s beauty.
Inviting locations around the world fill the pages of this illustrated, rhyming alphabet book.
“A is for alleyways, all painted blue,” readers are told, as a White girl and a tan-skinned boy walk down a blue street in Chefchaouen, the “blue city” of Morocco. On each page, a short phrase describes the remarkable thing about a place (named in small print), with the same two kids appearing somewhere in a glorious spread of color and magic. Ratti’s fluid poetry leads readers from one page to the next, across five of the seven continents, visiting attractions both well known (the Valley of the Queens in Luxor, Egypt) and less frequently represented (the reflective salt flats of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia). The majestic sites are wide ranging. Some showcase ancient landmarks; others feature natural wonders (the monarch migration in Angangueo, Mexico) or popular celebrations (the Yi Peng lantern festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand). While the larger text on each page is designed for youngsters to decipher, the vocabulary words (pointed, monarchs) may require emergent readers to pause to sound them out. Lap readers will happily pore over Bergeron’s lovely digital illustrations, which capture the enchantment of each of these places in the realism of her landscapes. Half of the book features locations in the Americas, with Africa and Asia each showing up for five letters, Europe three, and Australia and Antarctica missing from the story.
This tale’s gorgeous images and graceful poetry should inspire travelers to see the world’s beauty.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73783-011-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Rattling Press
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While it’s nothing out of the ordinary, toddlers will gravitate to all the bells and whistles in this offering.
Little fingers can press buttons to hear various sounds, touch tactile elements, and see photos of everyday objects.
Each double-page spread highlights a different category of noisemaker, including animals, vehicles, and foodstuffs. The recto features a large photo of an animal or object that includes an embedded fabric swatch. When pressed, a button under the fabric activates a battery-operated sound chip safely screwed into the back of the book. Little digits have to hit the button just right to activate the noisemaker and may require adult help. On the toy-themed page, an image of a drum includes a vinyl patch, and when pressed, an adult voice says the word “drum” followed by a recording of a drum being played. The verso features brightly colored panels with clear, captioned photos of blocks, a white doll, a kite, and such. The text is standard fare, focusing on encouraging youngsters to interact with the book: “Touch the apple to hear it crunch!” Some of the tactile elements are more satisfying than others; the mewing kitten’s fur is nice and soft, but the duck’s feathers are difficult to “ruffle” as the text prompts. The book ends with a “Bedtime” spread complete with moon, pajamas, clock, and a teddy bear to touch, make snore, and play a music-box lullaby.
While it’s nothing out of the ordinary, toddlers will gravitate to all the bells and whistles in this offering. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-680105-41-4
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
A perennial read that radiates summer’s heady glee.
Summer’s smells, sounds, rhythms, and rituals unspool luxuriantly in this tribute to the season when “days stretch out like a slow yawn,” when “bumblebees bumble,” and “every day is like a Saturday.”
An elementary school–age boy with light-brown skin and a shock of dark hair giddily greets summer’s markers: the final day of class, a lemonade stand, neighborhood hide-and-seek, July 4th parade and fireworks, camping and cooling off at a lake. He relishes summer’s free-wheeling ease alongside a swirling pack of friends, a group of children with delightfully ambiguous skin tones—tan, taupe, medium brown, dark brown—but all scarlet-cheeked from sunny afternoons. In gleeful acrylic illustrations, their eyes crinkle and pop with joy, their arms fly skyward, their legs extend midstride. These exuberant motions and feelings, uncomplicated but deeply understood by children, appear atop soft summer scenes in gauzy greens and cotton whites. Looking at these fantastic freeze-frames of fun, young readers see their desire to halt time during summer months fulfilled. Hearing lush phrases that capture summer’s ethos (“daylight pushes back bedtimes, and crickets crick-crick in the evening air”), they can almost smell freshly mown lawns and taste campfire s’mores.
A perennial read that radiates summer’s heady glee. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6071-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
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