A sweet new title about friends and imaginative play.
This playful, gentle romp for the toddler set depicts a monkey encountering various animals and getting the last laugh.
“Look at me! / I can fly away fast. I’m a bird!” read the first two spreads, and softly colored digital-collage illustrations show the imaginative monkey running down a hillside with his arms outspread. The next page-turn, however, shows a little red bird alighting on his head and saying, “No, silly monkey. I’m a bird. I can flap my wings.” This establishes the pattern for the rest of the book, as the monkey encounters a rabbit, a lion and an elephant who all assert themselves over his playful efforts to jump and hop, roar and splash, respectively. The animals all end up together for the denouement as they swing and climb on playground equipment, declaring, “Look at us…We’re monkeys.” Then, the true monkey responds, “No, friends, you’re not monkeys. / Look at me! I’m the silly monkey, can’t you see?” The closing illustration shows the monkey gazing out at readers, casting them as the “you” of this final line. Never mean-spirited, the animals’ exchanges leading up to this final point of engagement invite young children to anticipate the text’s pattern while enjoying the friendly illustrations.
A sweet new title about friends and imaginative play. (Picture book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3737-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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