LET'S GO OUTSIDE

Name: LET'S GO OUTSIDE
Author: Katja Spitzer
ISBN: 978-1-909263-51-2

by Katja Spitzer ; illustrated by Katja Spitzer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2016

With its combination of miscellaneous sight words, concept groupings, and attractive pictures, this is a useful book for...

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Simple, colorful block prints are accompanied by words and phrases in bold primary print, with the English countryside’s changing seasons in the background.

The diminutive book starts in spring, with a cheerful double-page spread of flowers and the word “Flowers.” The next spread shows a boy watering a green plant, accompanied by the word “Gardening.” The layout is pleasingly consistent, using all double-page spreads and showing all words in bold, green letters. Phrases such as “Fruit and vegetables” are obvious labels, while there are other pages that add whimsical fun. For example, a bright orange tabby is called “The neighbour’s cat,” and the illustration of a girl with a piece of grass in her mouth and cherries dangling from her ears simply says, “Cherries.” (Later, the same smiling girl, sans cherries, is used to illustrate “Swing.”) Children in the U.S. will readily recognize the Halloween pumpkin and winter snowman and will be tickled by the less-familiar blue hedgehog waddling in between those sets of pages, a pear lightly perched on its back. Several of the illustrations create opportunities for the youngest children to learn new vocabulary, as older readers help them identify all the tools, insects, vegetables, or leaves. Both children depicted are white.

With its combination of miscellaneous sight words, concept groupings, and attractive pictures, this is a useful book for reading readiness. (Picture book. 2-4)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-909263-51-2

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Flying Eye Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW MANY LEGS?
by Katja Spitzer ; illustrated by Katja Spitzer

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ANIMAL SHAPES

by Christopher Silas Neal ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2018

Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.

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You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!

What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?

Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)

Pub Date: March 27, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little Bee Books

Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
OVER AND UNDER THE CORAL REEF
by Kate Messner ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

- BOOK REVIEW
WE LEAP TOGETHER
by Christopher Silas Neal ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

- BOOK REVIEW
OVER AND UNDER THE WETLAND
by Kate Messner ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

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HELLO ROBOTS!

From the Hello…! series

by Joan Holub ; illustrated by Chris Dickason ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 2019

Good for a giggle from preschool readers despite its slight imperfections.

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A brightly illustrated story told in rhyme about mixed-up robots getting ready for the day.

Holub and Dickason team up for another title echoing the style of their similarly formatted Hello Knights! and Hello Ninjas! (both 2018). Here, the titular robots are having trouble getting ready for the day. They put socks on top of shoes and even forget how to eat their cereal, pouring milk on their heads and flipping their bowls upside down on the table. The confusion comes to a climax in a double gatefold in which the robots realize that they need a reboot, correcting their routines. Young readers will delight in the silliness: underpants on heads, bathing in clothes. Holub’s rhyming text works well for the most part and includes some charming turns of phrase, such as “brushing bolts” in place of brushing teeth. Dickason’s illustrations use a consistent palette of mostly primary colors and feature 1960s-style robots drawn with antennae, motherboards on boxy chests, and wheels for feet. The pages are busy and packed, allowing for new discoveries upon each read, though this busyness argues for use with older toddlers. It’s not entirely clear where the robots are headed (school?) or whether or not they’re also ETs (they fly away on a spaceship), but the story is fun enough to overlook those muddled details.

Good for a giggle from preschool readers despite its slight imperfections. (Board book. 2-4)