Adequate if overly busy.
Get an insider’s look at nocturnal life in this die-cut board book.
Touching briefly on various facets of human and animal nightlife, pages range from a farmer milking cows “before sunrise” while the rooster cock-a-doodle-doos to more natural settings, such as wetlands with bats hunting and frogs singing. There’s plenty to see on the busy pages—perhaps too much. Besides the primary text of accurate but generic statements about night, small bubbles filled with questions such as “What noise do frogs make?” or small factoids informing readers that “Frogs like to sing at night” hover arbitrarily about the page. With the different typefaces and text formats, pages lack visual focus, especially when print is sprinkled among the many mildly anthropomorphized animals and hectic backgrounds. Some die cuts are equally strained. While the largest center die cut effectively creates the illusion of a layered night sky, the fiddly, teeny die cuts sporadically placed across the page are too small to show much clearly and are sometimes misaligned from the picture underneath. Semirealistic illustrations with a Little Golden Book vibe are competent and capture the night environs reasonably well, and the extra-thick cardboard pages seem ready for tough toddler handling. Another book in the series, What Can You See? On the Farm, shares the same whimsical animals and chaotic format.
Adequate if overly busy. (Board book. 2-4 )Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-615-2
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There are better fish in the board-book sea.
Dramatic stock photos and die-cut tabs are the distinguishing features of this board book.
“Did you know that there are over 400 types of sharks?” is an intriguing opening, but readers primed to find out about those specific types may be surprised that the shark on the facing page is not identified. Instead, the picture of a shark above a school of fish gives a sense of its size. Smaller text explains that shark skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone. Layered die cuts that accentuate the nose and mouth of nine different sharks on the right-hand pages invite children to turn the pages quickly. White type printed against various contrasting colors on the left-hand pages offers tidbits of information but is unlikely to make young children pause long enough to be read the text. A picture of almost 40 sharks swimming together seems to contradict the accompanying explanation that many sharks are endangered. A final full-color spread speaks of sharks’ important role in maintaining ocean balance and includes a picture of a grandfatherly shark scientist. The back cover is devoted to information for adults. While intriguing and scientifically credible, the wordy text and seemingly arbitrary factoids are well beyond the attention spans of all but the most avid young fans of the species.
There are better fish in the board-book sea. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2128-8
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A serviceable exploration of the animal kingdom.
Little ones learn about sea life.
Animals found under the sea are the focus of this board book. An abcb rhyme scheme is employed to tell little readers about sea turtles, great white sharks (which smile benevolently if toothily), seals, blue whales, and sea horses. Each animal is discussed in two double-page spreads that offer basic facts: sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches; great whites are white only on their bellies; blue whales eat “tiny creatures.” Some facts are impenetrable and even inaccurate: of the seal, the text claims a “deep-sea diving suit of blubber keeps this swimmer dry”; the blue whale is as “big as any jumbo jet.” The illustrations feature smiling animals colored with deep hues that evoke the depths of their environment. The final page of the board book boasts further facts about each creature featured. Similar titles Forest Folk and Sky Guys are concurrently published, introducing little readers to forest critters and winged beasts respectively, using the same abcb format and design. While the graphics in each are appealing, the texts leave much to be desired.
A serviceable exploration of the animal kingdom. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-908985-86-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Button Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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