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APPLES AND ROBINS

Name: APPLES AND ROBINS
Author: Lucie Felix
ISBN: 978-1-4521-3264-8

by Lucie Felix ; illustrated by Lucie Felix ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2016

This very simple seasonal turn invites viewers to look afresh at shapes and colors and changes.

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In this cozy import, inventively placed cutouts on alternate pages turn geometric abstractions into apples, birds, a birdhouse, and other outdoorsy sights.

“All you need for apples are circles and the color red.” The transformations of color and space as the pages turn are consistently surprising: three simple white circles on a red field become autumn apples high on a leafy branch; a line of five short rectangles opposite one long vertical one assembles itself into a ladder; robins move into a new birdhouse until a winter storm arrives with a jagged bolt of lightning and a blast of wind to blow it down. But with a basket and a hammer, “I’ll climb the ladder and hang the birdhouse and take the apples in to eat.” Views through a window of a robin floating over a snowy landscape and, later, a close-up of “baby robins, and apple flowers” in spring are only slightly less minimal than the terse text or the rest of the art. Readers will marvel at the way Felix plays with shape and color, turning seemingly arbitrary arrangements of forms and angles into recognizable representations.

This very simple seasonal turn invites viewers to look afresh at shapes and colors and changes. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: March 8, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4521-3264-8

Page Count: 56

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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CHICKA CHICKA HO HO HO

From the Chicka Chicka Book series

by William Boniface ; illustrated by Julien Chung ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.

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A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.

The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9781665954761

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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YOUR BABY'S FIRST WORD WILL BE DADA

by Jimmy Fallon ; illustrated by Miguel Ordóñez ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.

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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)