There are plenty of other bedtime stories that do not offer this potential confusion; seek them out for nighttime and save...
Babies and bedtime go hand in hand. Add an alphabet with cuddly illustrations on sturdy pages, and you have a book ready-made for lap sharing.
A little girl labels and describes each of the letters. The letters and most of the rhyming text appear on the verso with small vignettes, while full-page illustrations unfold a small story on the recto. “Cc for the Clock that tick-tocks on the wall. / Dd is my Dog, who’s not sleepy at all.” The brown-and-white dog appears next to the letters and then again opposite, tugging at the end of the girl’s blanket, while an analog clock appears on the wall above. For the more difficult letters, “Qq is for Quiet,” “Xx for relaX,” and “Yy is for Yawn, and I’m ready to sleep. / All hushed until morning, you won’t hear a peep. / Zz Z…z…z…z….” The droopy-eared dog steals the show, and the little, red-cheeked Caucasian girl’s interaction with it adds playfulness to the bedtime buildup. Despite the book’s overall appeal, there are some out-of-sync blips. In the vignettes next to each letter, the dog poses with an unnamed object that also begins with that letter, which offers extra identification fun but may also cause confusion. Next to K, the dog peeks out from what many readers may identify as a doghouse but may be a “Kiosk,” and next to N, the pup appears snout to snout with what looks like a stuffed lamb (perhaps “Nuzzling” it?).
There are plenty of other bedtime stories that do not offer this potential confusion; seek them out for nighttime and save this for a brainteaser. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61067-368-6
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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