Not a substitute for but a possible successor to the plethora of more conventional—but safer—board-book and pop-up galleries.
Over 40 baby animals (plus a few trees) attach magnetically to desert, rain forest, savanna, or arctic scenes.
To help match the baby animals to their characteristic habitats, adult versions of each painted, die-cut creature pose in the simply rendered illustrations. However, natural history is not this import’s strong suit. There is a visual key at the end, but along with a few brief nature notes (“In the desert, many animals can survive on very little water”), only one or two creatures are identified on each spread. Moreover, neither the two tropical butterflies nor any of the flora, including three cutout trees, get a label or mention; two “baby” tropical frogs are just small adults; and the “Desert” includes saguaros and coconut palms in the same scene. The warning on the rear cover should be taken seriously, as many of the small, irregular pieces are definite choking hazards. They’ll also be easy to lose, though they are magnetized enough to stay in place through moderate shocks or when the volume is closed, and they can be stored in an attached pouch when they’re loose. Parents or teachers who prefer to stay away from licensed commercial characters may be drawn to this, and the pieces can also be used independently on any magnetic surface.
Not a substitute for but a possible successor to the plethora of more conventional—but safer—board-book and pop-up galleries. (Novelty. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2016
ISBN: 979-1-02760-193-6
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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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