With its combination of miscellaneous sight words, concept groupings, and attractive pictures, this is a useful book for...
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
BOOK REVIEW
Skippable.
A year in the life of a tree.
This cleverly designed novelty item is shaped like a tree; the trunk remains stable while the treetop forms the pages. Each subsequent page is bigger than the next, resulting in a layered front cover that reveals a slice of each page. In spring, the tree is covered with pink blossoms. A bird, ladybug and bee flit around its branches, and, out of place in the arboreal scene, a rabbit waits to be discovered behind a flap. Apples, a butterfly, dragonfly, caterpillar, fly, mouse and ants occupy the tree in summer, and this time, the flap reveals a worm munching a juicy apple. In the fall scene, the green background gives way to orange, against which individual leaves of red, gold and green stand out as well as a spider, snail and bird. Two flaps grace this page spread, concealing a squirrel and an owl. Readers will likely wonder about what has happened to winter, which has been given short shrift here—it’s pictured only on the back cover. Children will be attracted to the novel shape of this offering, but not much else about it stands out. Also, once the flaps have been lifted, they tend to stay open, preventing the book from closing properly.
Skippable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-2-8480-1945-1
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
A generally pleasing primer on simple counting concepts for toddlers and preschoolers.
Barad-Cutler offers an eye-catching introduction to counting forward and backward.
The design of this novelty offering features a large window cut from its center, with five happy pandas peering in from the edges, their number and arrangement shifting as the pages are turned. Upon opening the book, one of the five pandas is moved over to the left-hand page, which reads: “1 hungry panda eats something yummy.” This leaves four pandas on the right-hand page, pictured above text that reads: “But 4 hungry pandas still need to fill their tummies!” This formula—pandas increasing on the left and decreasing on the right to the rhythm of short, snappy couplets referencing the number of pandas in each scene—zips along until the final spread. Here, the left-hand page shows all five pandas, as expected, reading “5 hungry pandas eat a yummy snack,” while the right-hand page shows only an empty window above the words, “Now 5 happy pandas are ready for their nap.” Aside from the problematic concluding rhyme, a bit of confusion is introduced when the final page mentions five pandas yet pictures none. The illustrations are cheery and bright and the black print, appropriately large and bold with the numerals printed in color.
A generally pleasing primer on simple counting concepts for toddlers and preschoolers. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: June 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-53183-2
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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