While underwhelming in its exploration of textures, it does succeed as a playful introduction to animals of the African...
Youngsters can go on safari in this tactile venture.
A friendly, brown-skinned “guide” waves to readers on the opening double-page spread and offers an invitation to explore the savanna. Nine tableaux follow with a textural element embedded in or affixed to every other recto. There is an encounter with a “fuzzy” zebra with soft black stripes, a “bumpy” crocodile with embossed, green vinyl for skin, and a “furry” lion mane created with flannel. One to two sentences of introductory text, written in a cordial tone, hovers above the scene, and each animal is identified with a large caption in an appealing type that has a handwritten feel. Wilson’s art is endearing, and critters look quite cuddly in her childlike style and soft, watercolor palette of pale green, yellow, blue, and brown. The adventure ends with the guide hunkering down for the night in a tent made with a canvas fabric swatch. Given that the title and the cover (with jeep tires to touch) promise a texture-rich experience, the project is a bit of a letdown as the tactile elements appear only on every alternating page.
While underwhelming in its exploration of textures, it does succeed as a playful introduction to animals of the African savanna. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1459-9
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Don’t judge this book by its cover; there’s an unusual concept and whimsical illustrations hiding underneath
A series of solid shapes substitute for natural objects in this board book that is somewhere between concept book and riddle game.
What’s that shape supposed to be? Running across a rust-brown labeled triangle, amid trees and elk, the text “Climb a TRIANGLE to the top” suggests the shape is a mountain; in an ocean scene with a red “STAR washed in on the waves,” the shape implies a sea star. Ample visual cues give young readers enough context to guess what the shape evokes, with some unexpected touches, such as “HEXAGON” printed on hexagonal honeycombs buzzing with bees and surrounded by golden flowers. Short, commanding sentences keep things humming, but with only six shapes covered, the book feels all too brief. Illustrator Devernay combines delicate pencil line drawings and sketchy gray-black shading with tiny, meticulously cut colored-paper collage to create her plants and animals. The most intimate drawings amaze. Close-ups of smooth stones are so appealing that readers will long to pick one up and “rub a smooth OVAL between thumb and finger.” Sadly, the cover doesn’t do the interior justice, and things get murky when several hues mix there and on the final spread. But on other spreads, where there’s a single color, it pops against the gray, such as the minute yellow beaks on the flock of charcoal birds circling the yellow “CIRCLE” sun.
Don’t judge this book by its cover; there’s an unusual concept and whimsical illustrations hiding underneath . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-56846-317-9
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BLOG
Only gnashnabs would cavil at this eximious display of lexicographical largesse.
More labial lollipops for logomanes and sesquipedalian proto-savants.
The creators of Big Words for Little Geniuses (2017) and Cuddly Critters for Little Geniuses (2018) follow up with another ABC of extravagant expressions. It begins with “ailurophile” (“How furry sweet!” Puns, yet), ends with “zoanthropy,” and in between highlights “bioluminescent,” growls at a grouchy “gnashnab,” and collects a “knickknackatory” of like locutions. A list of 14 additional words is appended in a second, partial alphabet. Each entry comes with a phonetic version, a one- or two-sentence verbal definition, and, from Pan, a visual one with a big letter and very simple, broadly brushed figures. Lending an ear to aural pleasures, the authors borrow from German to include “fünfundfünfzig” in the main list and add a separate list of a dozen more words at the end likewise deemed sheer fun to say. Will any of these rare, generally polysyllabic leviathans find their way into idiolects or casual conversations? Unlikely, alas—but sounding them out and realizing that even the silliest have at least putative meanings sheds liminal light on language’s glittering word hoards.
Only gnashnabs would cavil at this eximious display of lexicographical largesse. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-53445-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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