As realism is not the object here, these lions are cute, cuddly and toothless, safe for sharing a crib with baby.
A day-in-the-life tale of a lion cub and his mother.
From morning until night, the little wild cat enjoys pouncing, playing, exploring and preening while his momma looks on and offers a helping paw when needed. The youngster encounters a fellow cub and a couple of meerkats before hunkering down with momma for the night. Each double-page spread (on thinner-than-normal board-book stock) provides a different view of the grassland setting in both bright and muted earth tones. Kightley’s paintings, which have the look of acrylic on canvas, are deft at capturing the sunny yellow cub and his playmate in motion. This is a kinder and gentler savanna. While the little feline appears to stalk a bird under his mother’s guidance, this feathered friend does not become a meal on subsequent pages. In gentle rhyming couplets meted out in one or two couplets per page, the first-person-narrator cub describes the action: “We run free. / So much to see. / Grasses sway. / I lead the way.”
As realism is not the object here, these lions are cute, cuddly and toothless, safe for sharing a crib with baby. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-53091-0
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
While the covers of both titles suggest lots of interaction, the pages within fail to deliver the goods.
An ode to various kinds of hugs as enacted by various animals.
The uncredited, rhymed text is mostly fluid, but the typeface changes radically from page to page and even word to word, making it difficult to scan. Each double- or single-page spread depicts a pair or group of animals engaged in a hug, some of which are more successful than others. While the mouse pair looks to be cozily hugging in Mantle’s cheerful, brightly colored cartoons, the group of birds on a wire don’t appear to be at all, and one member of the frog duo is attempting to escape the embrace of the other. Attached to the back cover are two arm-shaped flaps that flip around the entire book to illustrate a bear embracing its cub and simultaneously fasten the book with magnetic closures. While a pleasing gimmick, young browsers may be disappointed that it does not continue on the interior pages. Peek-a-boo!, the companion book, uses the same type of flaps on the cover to hide a bunny’s eyes. Inside, children are invited to play the titular game as a bear, a cat and a gorilla, among others, hide behind some object in their habitat and reveal themselves on the verso. While the text is playful, the typeface is, again, all over the place, and the turn-the-page peekaboo format is less successful than the lift-the-flap variety.
While the covers of both titles suggest lots of interaction, the pages within fail to deliver the goods. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-637-8
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hits just the right note for fans of the series and newcomers alike.
A stuffed dog (and his baby) are afraid until they realize they have each other.
Patricelli’s instantly recognizable baby—White, still perpetually diaper clad, still with but one hair—from Bigger! Bigger! (2018) and many more is back with an adorable purple stuffed animal named Doggie. From swimming pools to strangers, Doggie gets pretty scared. The baby provides the pup lots of reassurance (including time with baby’s blankie) so that in the end, neither one is too afraid anymore. Adult readers will get a kick out of the fact that Doggie’s fears are actually the baby’s fears. What’s more, readers see the baby trying many of the same calm-down tactics on the stuffed canine that caregivers use on children. Both this device and the first-person narration are clever tools that will play well with little readers who likely share many of the same fears. The black-outlined images stand out against bold, saturated backgrounds, drawn with just enough detail to be interesting but not too busy. The simplicity of the illustrations doesn’t prevent Patricelli from conveying emotion, from the baby’s panic at possibly losing Doggie to the caregiver’s palpable relief at having found it. All of the characters present White save a few background figures. Patricelli’s rhyming Mad, Mad, MAD features the baby expressing anger and ultimately using techniques to work through it.
Hits just the right note for fans of the series and newcomers alike. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0379-0
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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