A simple game needlessly complicated.
A baby's favorite game gets a barnyard setting.
The peekaboo pastime is brought to the farm in this board book. Little ones are given a series of clues and encouraged to look through a die-cut window to the next page and guess which animal resides there. “I have long EARS and two large front TEETH. I hop around the farm to find delicious CARROTS to eat. I am a.…” Opposite this clue is a brown box with an open flap that exposes a round eye in a partially hidden blue face. With the turn of the page, readers see a rabbit from hips up chomping on a carrot. Other animals depicted are a pig, a rooster, a cow, a chick, and, in a nicely democratic gesture, a child. The prose clues are certainly necessary, as the grainy-textured illustrations are sometimes not clear enough to clue readers in to what they're looking at. This makes for an interesting guessing game but a pretty poor peekaboo exercise. Older readers will eventually figure out what's going on, but young tots will just be frustrated. Three other books in the series—At Night, Look at Me, and Knock, Knock, Who Lives Here?—publish simultaneously.
A simple game needlessly complicated. (Board book. 1-2)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1586-7
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Sounds like a winner, though the animal chorus is a bit thin.
Bunny hunts for carrots but finds noisy animal babies behind each flap instead.
“Bunny hops out of her burrow, / she’s looking for carrots to eat. / Can you help this fluffy friend / find a tasty treat?” The baaas, quacks, chirps, and horsey clip-clopping—activated by light as each of the first four big, shaped flaps lift—are gratifyingly loud and clear. All of the animal figures in the bright color pictures are intensely cute plush toys inserted into simple outdoorsy mixes of painted greenery and photographed flowers and bugs. Even the heaped carrots hiding behind the fifth and final flap are soft and fuzzy, though you’d never know that from the sound as Bunny hops on them (with a really loud boing) and chows down with crunches so comically amplified and rapid that caregivers too will laugh (at least the first dozen or so go-rounds). As no pressing of buttons is required to cue the sound effects, Bunny’s miniodyssey is suited to sharing at a slight remove with groups of toddlers as well as one-on-one. Batteries are replaceable, and there is (thankfully) an on-off switch on the rear cover.
Sounds like a winner, though the animal chorus is a bit thin. (Novelty board book. 18 mos.-2)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4654-7853-5
Page Count: 12
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
A bright and friendly but no more than serviceable board book.
Little readers play peekaboo with animals.
Carle’s iconic illustrations form the centerpiece of this simple lift-the-flap board book. Each double-page spread features an animal obscured by a flap (a solid block of trademark, textured Carle color) on one side and a four-line abcb stanza describing the animal on the opposite page. Readers are given hints about the hidden creature before they play peekaboo and lift the flap to reveal a monkey, horse, turtle, and more. “I’m a big cat, / but I don’t purr. / I’ve got black stripes / and bright orange fur.” Although most of the facts offered are scientifically valid, the ambiguously worded modifier for the monkey’s clue—“With my long tail, / I swing in the trees”—risks imparting the misinformation that monkeys suspend themselves from their tails. Carle’s illustrations are as recognizable to little readers as the characters on Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and the familiarity breeds appreciation. There’s nothing truly special or distinctive regarding the mechanics of this particular title, but the familiar look acts as a comfort food–esque motivation to get little ones’ attention.
A bright and friendly but no more than serviceable board book. (Board book. 1-2)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0105-1
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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