Hooray! Hooray! Again! Again! (Picture book. 2-4)
Building-block play is fodder for a little girl’s imagination.
The exuberant, pigtailed girl from previous Patricelli titles (Faster! Faster!, 2012, etc.) returns, and here her pretend play centers on building blocks. The frontmatter pages show her dumping out multicolored blocks while wearing a construction hat. She starts to build, and the spare setting suggests the inside of a home. This changes with the page turn as the blue wall behind her morphs into an open blue sky, and her pets from the prior page become slightly anthropomorphized. The illustrations thus move readers into the realm of fantasy as the girl’s block creations are now presented as full-scale buildings: first a doghouse, then a house, and “Bigger! Bigger!” until a climactic spread depicts the girl and her pets rejoicing in front of the “Biggest!” city skyline. Then, “BOOM! BOOM!” They hear something, and a page turn reveals a larger-than-life, diapered baby stomping through the city like Godzilla. Readers may see that the baby bears a striking resemblance to the tot featured in Patricelli’s board book series, and they will doubtlessly realize that here the baby is the girl’s little sibling, wreaking havoc on her block play. The story shifts back to reality as baby tries to make amends and the big sister generously welcomes collaborative play. Both girl and baby present white.
Hooray! Hooray! Again! Again! (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7930-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
This TV rerun in board-book form has nothing new to offer.
Peppa hopes to join her classmates in a Halloween pumpkin competition in this adaptation of a story from the popular British television program Peppa Pig.
With the help of Granny and Grandpa Pig, Peppa turns her giant pumpkin, which is the size of a compact car, into a jack-o’-lantern. The trio is flummoxed when it comes time to transport the pumpkin to the competition, so they call on Miss Rabbit and her helicopter to airlift the pumpkin to the festivities as Peppa and her grandparents ride inside. Peppa arrives just in time for the contest and wins the prize for best flying pumpkin. The scenes look as if they are pulled directly from the television show, right down to the rectangular framing of some of the scenes. While the story is literally nothing new, the text is serviceable, describing the action in two to three sentences per page. The pumpkin-shaped book and orange foil cover will likely attract youngsters, whether they are Peppa fans or not.
This TV rerun in board-book form has nothing new to offer. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-33922-2
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt.
A love song from parents to their child.
This title will seem quite similar to the many others about parents’ deep love for their children. The text is wholly composed of first-person declarations of parental love, and it’s juxtaposed with illustrations of the child with one or both parents. It’s not always clear who the “I” speaking is, and there are a few pages that instead use “we.” Most sentences begin with “I love you more” phrasing to communicate that nothing could undermine parental love: “I love you more than all the sleepless nights…and all the early, tired mornings.” The accompanying pictures depict the child as a baby with weary parents. Later spreads show the child growing up, and the phrasing shifts away from the challenges of parenting to its joys and to attempts to quantify love: “I love you more than all the blades of grass at the park…and all the soccer that we played.” Throughout, Bell’s illustrations use pastel tones and soft visual texture to depict cozy, wholesome scenes that are largely redundant of the straightforward, warm text. They feature a brown-haired family with a mother, father, and child, who all appear to be white (though the father has skin that’s a shade darker than the others’).
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0652-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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