An adored little girl must adjust to sharing the spotlight with her new baby sister.
Phoebe, a girl with dark wavy hair and light skin, is used to being the center of attention. Her parents and extended family take so many pictures of her that she concludes she must be famous, and she glories in their adoration. The cheeky text plays with Phoebe’s self-perceived fame and constructs her as a little starlet among her many “fans” until “…a younger co-star arrived on-set.” The new baby’s name is Rose, and a jealous Phoebe quickly decides that she’s “a diva.” It’s not until Phoebe figures out how to entertain the baby, provoking her first smile, that Phoebe comes around and decides to embrace her new role as big sister. Blard-Quintard’s expressive illustrations do a fine job of at turns providing a comfortable home setting for Phoebe’s story and then homing in on her character in spreads with minimal or reduced settings that highlight her actions and emotions.
A worthy, sistercentric addition for the new-baby shelf. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2034-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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