Simple rhymes and warm images will invite young children to nod off quickly.
A series of loving images, mostly juxtapositions of animals and their surroundings, add up to a pleasing bedtime book.
Starting off a little awkwardly with “If you are the egg, I am the hen,” the text soon pivots to what becomes a pattern, with one statement per double-page spread: “If you are the bear, I am the den,” and then lines like “If you are the squirrel, I am the tree,” and “If you are the traveler, I am the sea.” The flat, naïve illustrations of the animals are rendered in a muted but attractive palette of pinks, reds, greens, and browns and are usually offset by a secondary object in a bluish gray. Small chicks inhabit each picture, supplying continuity. Vaguely reminiscent of The Runaway Bunny in its quiet rhythms, the text continues: “If you are the writer, I am the nook. / If you are the reader, I am the book.” These lines are illustrated with a skunk scrivening in a little gray space under a flight of stairs and an elephant cozily reading a gray book while sitting in a patterned green easy chair with its pink toes resting on a matching ottoman. The title is highlighted in the last two spreads, as a red fox sleeps amid the clouds and then a gray, blue, and white galaxy of stars unfolds, as the text reads: “And, if you are the dreamer… / I am the stars / holding your dreams, / whatever they are.”
Simple rhymes and warm images will invite young children to nod off quickly. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951836-27-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cameron + Company
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Chaotic fun, perfect for read-alouds.
A bookmark accompanies readers through a book as the sounds that the creatures and things within make become increasingly bizarre.
First, an apple goes “crunch” when you eat it. Sure. Then a flower says, “CHUGGA CHUGGA CHOO CHOO!!!!” What? And then a bicycle—or wait, isn’t that a puppy?—belches. Huh. When an “elephant”—actually, a brown-skinned firefighter—says, “DING-DONG!” the bookmark has had it and must correct the unseen narrator: “It’s a firefighter, and a firefighter says stuff like ‘Hey! Let’s go put out that fire!’” As the story progresses, more and more creatures make the wrong noises. Bicycles referred to as lions moo, a chicken (dubbed a fish) goes “SPLISH-SPLASH-SPLISH!” and a shark (“a yummy hamburger”) says, “BAWK BAWK BAWK and COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!” Finally, the increasingly distressed bookmark makes one last attempt to right the inaccurate onomatopoeia. This fast-paced tale balances the narration’s straightforward delivery of inaccurate statements with the bookmark’s initial confusion and later frustration to create a hilarious subversion of expectations. Little ones will delight in the obvious errors, and the right reader will be able to deliver the various “moos” and “beeps,” with humorous results. Exuberant illustrations—the hyper-expressive bookmark is especially funny—as well as the use of different typefaces further compound the ridiculousness of the characters’ antics, making for a colorful and high-energy reading experience.
Chaotic fun, perfect for read-alouds. (Picture book, 3-5.)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593621967
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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