A book that acts as a visual yardstick for preschool children to gauge just how much they've grown and learned since they were babies. It begins with a full-color group photo of six winsome preschoolers juxtaposed against their individual baby photos. A series of vignettes follows, each one focusing on the dependent infant the child was and his or her contrasting accomplishments now. Readers see each of them revel in the realization that ``Now I'm big!'' There is an element of mystery to the story: matching the initial baby photos to the grown children in the group shot. Miller (My Five Senses, 1994, etc.) offers a simple concept, carefully executed, that will reinforce all children's sense of mastery of basic tasks. (Picture book. 3+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-14077-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
A standout picture book that both entertains and teaches.
So many places to go. How to explore them? With maps!
A cheery cartoon raccoon opens the world—i.e., a figurative foldout map—to young explorers and explains the wonderful ways maps help people navigate. In a chatty, conversational voice, the narrator explains how maps show a bird’s-eye view of a place, allow people to get where they want to go, use symbols (e.g., a compass rose, map keys), and much more. The raccoon also discusses various kinds of maps, including city and road maps, museum maps, star maps, weather maps, even maps of the inside of the body. Grown-ups, take note of the plethora of foundational skills kids can hone here, such as visual literacy, counting, color recognition, directionality, spatial concepts, and size relationships, not to mention the fun, ease, and sense of adventure they’ll experience in learning to confidently find their way about. The raccoon guide asks children frequent questions throughout, so they get ample seek-and-find opportunities while negotiating varied, easy-to-follow maps and learning from this stimulating, fact-filled book. Colorful, lively artwork does much to make the book itself a map of sorts, as spreads teach and guide youngsters in navigating and interpreting the elements of simple maps step by step. A map index concludes the volume. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A standout picture book that both entertains and teaches. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780593519981
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Beginning with the number ten, Hawk’s verses count down different tree leaves/seeds in all their fall glory. “Nine dogwood leaves / bright shining scarlet, / drifting down, down, down— / like the tail of a comet.” While the text is problematic—there are rhyme and scansion issues and one page does not name the tree featured at all—Neidigh’s illustrations do not disappoint. Detailed borders include close-up views of the bark of each tree while corners depict the whole tree, the leaves (both summer and fall colors) and the seeds. Woodland animals round out each spread, in which readers can count the leaves. Most are very clear, but extra objects may occasionally confuse readers. Backmatter gives readers a chance to test their knowledge of plant parts, categorize leaves according to their shape, match summer and fall leaves and learn how people and animals use some of the trees featured in the text. The visual details make this a delight to the eye, but unfortunately the verses are not music to the ear. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: July 10, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-934359-94-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sylvan Dell
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
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