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DOT TO DOT

Name: DOT TO DOT
Author: Malcolm Cossons
ISBN: 978-0-500-65015-8

by Malcolm Cossons ; illustrated by Neil Stevens ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Clever concept and beautiful execution—but hard to truly flip over.

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In this wittily titled dos-à-dos picture book, Grandma Dot and her granddaughter share a name, a birthday and a strong regard for each other.

More than anything in the world, they want to be together on their birthday. But Grandma lives in New York, and Dot lives in London. Grandma Dot decides to pay Dot a surprise visit, going the long way to London around the world, picking up other grandchildren in Beijing, Mumbai and Rome along the way. The whole entourage finally arrives at Dot’s London home in style in a double-decker bus, and the two relatives are joyously united on their birthday. Flip the book over to see young Dot’s attempts to mail a birthday card to her grandma. This beautifully produced faux–two-color picture book is pleasingly symmetrical; each Dot’s story mirrors the content of the other, and Dot and Dot come together at a family party in the middle. In a self-consciously retro style that strongly evokes children’s classics such as Madeline and Curious George, the illustrations are humorous and skillfully done, but the depictions of other cultures (China, India and Europe) seem dated and naïve for today’s readers.

Clever concept and beautiful execution—but hard to truly flip over. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-500-65015-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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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)

Pub Date: June 9, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
CON POLLO
by Jimmy Fallon & Jennifer Lopez ; illustrated by Andrea Campos

- SEEN & HEARD
Jimmy Fallon Christmas Book Coming This Fall

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ONE FAMILY

by George Shannon ; illustrated by Blanca Gómez ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2015

A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.

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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)