This appealing under-the-sea number book will hook toddlers and their parents.
Practice counting to 10 with a variety of friendly fishies.
Cousins employees her usual palette of rich, bold colors, with fuchsia, scarlet, tangerine, and turquoise fish popping against beachy blue backgrounds. Her gouache paintings are thickly bordered in a rough black line that matches the dark hand-lettered text. A decorated number sits prominently on the left page, and the equivalent amount of fish swim on the right. The spreads are further connected by corresponding patterns, such as an orange-and-gold crisscrossed “4” to match four goldfish on the opposing page or a speckled rainbow “9” that mimics the “Nine funny fish.” Transparent spot gloss over the numbers and sea creatures adds to both the aquatic feel and the overall cheery vibe. With visually distinct species for each number, from spiky lionfish to smiling sharks, counting the sets is generally easy, although “Eight shy fish” are difficult to identify amid the seaweed. Short, peppy rhymes brimming with alliteration (“Five fat fish. / Splish splosh, splash!”) keep things appropriately bubbly, and while the ending (“Hooray! How many fish have you found?” with a variety of fish floating about) isn’t especially inspired, it does the job. A sparkly fish on the cover is superfluous but will likely tempt readers familiar with Rainbow Fish.
This appealing under-the-sea number book will hook toddlers and their parents. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0024-9
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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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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BOOK REVIEW
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