Is it cute? Sure. Does it tell a story? Definitely not.
Four mini board books about magical horses fit inside one larger board book with playscape pages.
Flicker, Chestnut, Blizzard, and Cloud are four magical horses, each with their own mini board-book featurette. The four books—roughly 3 inches square, with die-cut shaping—fit inside a larger board book that has three play scenes with roughly figure-eight tracks. The idea is that the mini books (with a front and back cover that is just the image of each horse) double as manipulatives that can stomp and trot along the paths around the castle, farm, or winter scenes in the larger book. The horse books have short, declarative statements about each horse’s abilities and character traits: “Cloud is kind”; “Chestnut trots through new paths.” There is no story, no interaction among the horses, nothing imaginative, and it’s unclear what the horses even do that is “magical,” excepting Cloud’s ability to fly. Mytinger’s illustrations give some personality to each of the horses, with such details as tiny flowers in Blizzard’s mane or woodland creatures in Chestnut’s story, but they’re not enough to flesh out their characters. Because the entire middle section of the large book is a storage container for the mini books, the play scenes feature sparse illustrations. This one is firmly more toy than book. Not a lot of substance.
Is it cute? Sure. Does it tell a story? Definitely not. (Novelty board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6547-9
Page Count: 5
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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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