A formulaic, fishy nighttime read sure to please fans.
For his 20th anniversary, Rainbow Fish gets a bedtime story.
Poor little Rainbow Fish can’t sleep. He tosses and turns, but he’s just too anxious. Mommy sends in the lantern fish, but darkness isn’t the problem. Rainbow Fish asks Mommy to stay and promise she’ll never leave, but even that promise isn’t enough. Rainbow Fish worries that the tide will come in and whisk him away. Mommy promises to swim faster than a swordfish and get Rainbow back home safely. What if he loses his way in a cloud of octopus ink? Mommy promises to find him and dispel the cloud. If a monster fish comes to get him? He’ll have to contend with Mommy first! If a jellyfish threatens? Mommy will rescue Rainbow…even from bad dreams. Pfister’s seventh tale of the sparkly sea dweller, translated from the German, is a perfectly acceptable, though nowhere near innovative, bedtime book. The draw here remains the shiny scales on every page. The watercolor, pencil, and foil illustrations match the rest of the series. Rainbow’s fears are age-appropriate, and young listeners will identify and be comforted.
A formulaic, fishy nighttime read sure to please fans. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4082-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery.
A troop of cats traverse a spooky landscape as they make their way to a party hosted by ghosts.
Each double-page spread shows the felines’ encounters with the likes of an owl, jack-o’-lanterns or a bat. One or two of these creepy meetings may be too abstract for the youngest readers, as the cats hear eerie noises with no discernible source on the page. The text, which consists of one rhyming couplet per scene, mostly scans despite a couple of wobbles: “Five black cats get a bit of a scare / As the flip-flapping wings of a bat fill the air.” The sleek, slightly retro art, likely created using a computer, depicts the cats cavorting at night through a shadowy cityscape, the countryside and a haunted house; they may scare some toddlers and delight others. A brighter color palette would have given the project a friendlier, more universal appeal. Luckily, the well-lit, final party scene provides a playful conclusion.
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-611-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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