Skip this for toddlers still learning about Easter activities and go with Aly Fronis and Sanja Rescek’s This Little Bunny...
Tucker the lively white terrier returns in his fourth holiday board book (Gobble, Gobble, Tucker, 2014, etc.).
This time he uses his digging skills to help the Easter Bunny hide Easter eggs, wearing a pair of ears and a cotton ball tail as a disguise. Unfortunately, he hides them so well the kids can’t find them, and so he must help them by digging out all the Easter eggs again. Children involved in the egg hunt have dark as well as light skin tones and hair color. McGuirk’s simple gouache cartoon illustrations use child-friendly black outlines and vibrant colors; however, the Easter Bunny has the exact same expression throughout the book, making it difficult to guess whether he is happy or upset. Despite the board-book format, slight story, and childish illustrations, this offering will work best with kids older than toddlers, as it demands familiarity with the concept of Easter eggs and Easter egg hunts.
Skip this for toddlers still learning about Easter activities and go with Aly Fronis and Sanja Rescek’s This Little Bunny (2016) instead. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8536-2
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery.
A troop of cats traverse a spooky landscape as they make their way to a party hosted by ghosts.
Each double-page spread shows the felines’ encounters with the likes of an owl, jack-o’-lanterns or a bat. One or two of these creepy meetings may be too abstract for the youngest readers, as the cats hear eerie noises with no discernible source on the page. The text, which consists of one rhyming couplet per scene, mostly scans despite a couple of wobbles: “Five black cats get a bit of a scare / As the flip-flapping wings of a bat fill the air.” The sleek, slightly retro art, likely created using a computer, depicts the cats cavorting at night through a shadowy cityscape, the countryside and a haunted house; they may scare some toddlers and delight others. A brighter color palette would have given the project a friendlier, more universal appeal. Luckily, the well-lit, final party scene provides a playful conclusion.
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-611-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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