Brand-new readers need very easy stories with familiar situations that they can read over and over. The Bob Books still...
The Bob Books, long a staple in little square boxed sets for preschoolers, are now available in an early-reader format.
Big sister Anna and her brother Jack want a dog. Mom and Dad explain all the work a new dog will require. A trip to the Pet Shelter allows the family to pick out their new brown dog, Buddy. The two kids find their new canine friend has more energy than their house can contain. The easy solution—a trip to the park—tires out both Buddy and his new owners. Written by the daughter of the original Bob Book designers, this is sturdy and utilitarian. With both sight words and words that require basic decoding skills, these books are aimed directly at the young child who wants to pick up and read a book from start to finish. On the last pages are flash cards, ready to cut out, showing a word on one side and a picture and sentence from the book using that word on the other. Jack and Anna are drawn with a little more detail than their predecessors, including colored clothing and background. The friendly typeface is easy to read and clear. Kindergarten teachers and parents of children on the cusp of reading will find this series helpful.
Brand-new readers need very easy stories with familiar situations that they can read over and over. The Bob Books still deliver, even if they don't have much pizzazz. (Early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-38268-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
A sweet and unexpected addition to the waiting-for-baby shelf.
A big, yellow hound dog has small, wonderful dreams.
Emma’s dreams are doggily simple. Rendered in gray, they manifest above her contentedly slumbering form: “singing, dancing, rolling in grass, splashing in water, going for walks,” and eating. After she wakes and eats, she naps again, sprawled on her back, tummy distended, the very picture of canine bliss. Pages turn, with Cooper’s lyrical text focusing on Emma and her sensations: “The days went on, shifting and taking shape, and now there were times when her whole body felt strange, but there was no stopping the days.” A gently curving line of overlapping Emmas, rising, stretching, scratching, shifting, and resettling, underscores time’s march. Adult readers may be anxious at this point, fearing Emma’s impending death with the page turn—but no, it turns out Emma’s been literally full of wonders, and she gazes mildly at a puppy emerging from her own body. Then there they are, seven little Emmas, and they now embody her dreams. Cooper’s brushy, loose watercolors, outlined in swoops of ink, complement his Emma-focused text. She resides in a human home, but her owner appears only as tan-skinned hands extending from the margin to offer a bowl of food, caress her snout, or towel off a pup. In this way, Cooper invites readers into Emma’s interiority, allowing them to sit quietly and wonder with her.
A sweet and unexpected addition to the waiting-for-baby shelf. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884763
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Sweet fare for bed- or naptimes, with a light frosting of natural history.
A sonorous, soporific invitation to join woodland creatures in bedding down for the night.
As in her Moon Babies, illustrated by Amy Hevron (2019), Jameson displays a rare gift for harmonious language and rhyme. She leads off with a bear: “Come home, Big Paws. / Berry picker / Honey trickster / Shadows deepen in the glen. / Lumber back inside your den.” Continuing in the same pattern, she urges a moose (“Velvet Nose”), a deer (“Tiny Hooves”), and a succession of ever smaller creatures to find their nooks and nests as twilight deepens in Boutavant’s woodsy, autumnal scenes and snow begins to drift down. Through each of those scenes quietly walks an alert White child (accompanied by an unusually self-controlled pooch), peering through branches or over rocks at the animals in the foregrounds and sketching them in a notebook. The observer’s turn comes round at last, as a bearded parent beckons: “This way, Small Boots. / Brave trailblazer / Bright stargazer / Cabin’s toasty. Blanket’s soft. / Snuggle deep in sleeping loft.” The animals go unnamed, leaving it to younger listeners to identify each one from the pictures…if they can do so before the verses’ murmurous tempo closes their eyes.
Sweet fare for bed- or naptimes, with a light frosting of natural history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7063-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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