A sweet story that pulls on the heartstrings.
Big Bear and Little Bear have many things in common—some with slight, unexpected twists.
Big Bear wears a yellow top and white pants, and Little Bear wears a white top with yellow pants. They both have boots, a coffee cup, a plate, a toothbrush, and slippers. All things are distinguished mainly by their size: Big Bear’s things are big, and Little Bear’s things are little. In some instances, a strain of tenderness infuses the story. For instance, Big Bear’s car is exactly that, but Little Bear’s car is a cloth sling across Big Bear’s back. Big Bear’s house and Little Bear’s house are precisely the same one. Big Bear’s chair is a brown wooden one, reminiscent of the classic story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” but Little Bear’s chair is Big Bear’s welcoming lap. Big Bear’s lovey is Little Bear, and Little Bear’s lovey is a plush white rabbit. The final spread will resonate with many adults and children: The illustration on the verso depicts a cozy bed with Big Bear in it (“Big Bear’s bed”), and the illustration on the recto shows both bears in the same snug bed (“Little Bear’s bed”). Originally published in French, Schneider’s childlike illustrations are colorful and attractive, set against plain, monochromatic backgrounds.
A sweet story that pulls on the heartstrings. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951836-28-3
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Cameron + Company
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun spotlight on a warm-weather treat.
An ice cream truck makes the neighborhood rounds.
Shaped like a truck, this board book shows the pastel-pink vehicle touring various spots—the school, the library, the pool, and the park—before retiring for the night. The rhyming text keeps pages turning and lends itself to a lap-sit read-aloud. Words like mosey and cruise are fresh synonyms for the more obvious go and drive. Surprisingly, there is only a brief mention of the truck’s iconic tune (“You’ll hear me at the park”). The anthropomorphic truck has a warm, welcoming face but no driver. This means there are odd floating ice cream scoops, and children seem to magically receive treats. The thickly outlined, colorful, appealing illustrations are similar to those in other board books. Little ones will enjoy looking for fun details on the various spreads, such as flowers, houses, and animals. The children are diverse in terms of skin tone and hair color, and they and the truck are smiling in nearly every scene. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A fun spotlight on a warm-weather treat. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781665932981
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
A sweet but standard-issue Christmas read.
Little ones are taught their ABCs with Christmas iconography.
A CAT nibbles on a candy cane, and FOXES sing holiday carols, while LANTERNS glow and ORNAMENTS sparkle on festive trees. Christmas is in the air, and so are the letters of the alphabet. Each letter gets a corresponding Christmas illustration, charmingly colored and cozily composed. The easily read text beneath each picture forms rhyming couplets (“GEESE with gumdrops stacked up tall. / HOME is where we deck the halls”), with the key word set in all caps. The imagery mixes spiritual and secular icons side by side: there are baby JESUS, SANTA, the “Three kind KINGS,” and (a little mystifyingly) “UNICORNS donning underwear.” The warm color palette draws little readers in, and the illustrations have a gingerbread-cookie aesthetic, though there is no real attempt to include Christmas traditions such as luminaria from nondominant cultures. The picture that groups a stereotypical Eskimo, an igloo, and some penguins will madden many readers on both cultural and geographical fronts.
A sweet but standard-issue Christmas read. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7624-6125-7
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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