Simple, elegant design produces a title with high appeal for the preschool set.
Young Sophie is portrayed with yellow hair and a red dress and smiles out at readers as the story begins. Soon she makes the acquaintance of a most amiable goose.
Sophie is like many girls. She enjoys her dolls and dressing up. But sometimes she is lonely playing by herself. Even when her mother takes her to the park, she opts for the slide and swings instead of the seesaw. “Sophie wishes she had a friend to play with.” On the facing page is an ovular bit of golden yellow on the right that catches the narrator’s attention: “But wait. What’s that?” The page turn reveals Sophie’s surprised excitement at meeting Goose. They play all day. “When it is time to go home, Goose wants to come, too.” Unfortunately, Mom, always pictured from the hip down, disagrees. But Goose is at the park the next day. They play until Goose sees some of his fellow geese heading south. Saddened, Goose and Sophie give each other a fierce goodbye hug. Thankfully, their parting is short-lived—and this time, Mom says he can come home. Wall’s spare text allows her thick-lined, childlike illustrations to fully convey the tale’s emotional arc. The white and yellow used for both Sophie and Goose glow brilliantly against the vibrant hues chosen for the background.
Simple, elegant design produces a title with high appeal for the preschool set. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-232435-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back.
Little Nutbrown Hare ventures out into the wide world and comes back with a new companion in this sequel to Guess How Much I Love You (1994).
Big Nutbrown Hare is too busy, so after asking permission, Little Nutbrown Hare scampers off over the rolling meadow to play by himself. After discovering that neither his shadow nor his reflection make satisfactory playmates (“You’re only another me!”), Little Nutbrown comes to Cloudy Mountain…and meets “Someone real!” It’s a white bunny who introduces herself as Tipps. But a wonderful round of digging and building and chasing about reaches an unexpected end with a game of hide-and-seek, because both hares hide! After waiting a long time to be found, Little Nutbrown Hare hops on home in disappointment, wondering whether he’ll ever see Tipps again. As it turns out, it doesn’t take long to find out, since she has followed him. “Now, where on earth did she come from?” wonders Big Nutbrown. “Her name is Tipps,” Little Nutbrown proudly replies, “and she’s my friend.” Jeram’s spacious, pale-toned, naturalistic outdoor scenes create a properly idyllic setting for this cozy development in a tender child-caregiver relationship—which hasn’t lost a bit of its appealing intimacy in the more than 25 years since its first appearance. As in the first, Big Nutbrown Hare is ungendered, facilitating pleasingly flexible readings.
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1747-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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More kit than story, with some assembly required.
Two outings and a game of hide-and-seek in between add up to a perfect day for Peppa and friends in this four-spread TV-series spinoff.
First Peppa and her bubble-gum–pink family ride to the park (“Vroom!” says little George) for a healthy picnic packed by Daddy Pig. Then it’s home for playtime with Danny Dog and Suzy Sheep, until Grandpa Pig arrives with a boat big enough for all (“Ship ahoy!”). Children can embellish this stripped-down plotline on the foldout playscape attached to the back cover. All of the figures in the flat, very simple illustrations also come as punch-outs on a loose sheet, and there are corresponding slots in the detachable pop-up car and boat. Fans of the British series, which runs on Nick Jr. in the United States, may experience several moments of pleasure before the card-stock vehicles are crushed.
More kit than story, with some assembly required. (sticker sheet) (Pop-up/picture book. 3-4)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6825-9
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
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