This book will likely become a game of starting and stopping the musical clips, and for good reason: There’s not much else...
A musical board book features sound buttons that trigger clips of six classical songs.
The focus of this book is on listening to snippets (roughly 15 to 20 seconds long) from mostly well-known classical compositions. Each spread features one song and an accompanying illustration. The composer’s name and song title headline the text above a smaller line of interpretive text. The pages invite readers to interact by touching a button that activates the song. Some clips may be familiar even to younger readers, such as Mozart’s “The Turkish March,” while others, such as Paganini’s “The Campanella,” are likely to be new, for an overall nice balance. The illustrations—featuring animals and insects—are simple and relate to the song title, so Schubert’s “The Trout Quintet” depicts a trout jumping out of the water. Some of the directive text is inviting, asking readers to count ants, for example; elsewhere it’s simply descriptive. Neither the illustrations nor the text has enough depth or quality to bring much value to the book. Of note for adults: The book comes with an installed battery and an on-off switch, and the music can be started and stopped by touching the button on each page.
This book will likely become a game of starting and stopping the musical clips, and for good reason: There’s not much else to it. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-26721-1
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While an audience of young vehicle aficionados or avid skaters might be attracted, this is a disappointing and poorly...
Learn how Zambonis clean ice in this awkwardly shaped book.
In the voice of the Zamboni, dull pronouncements about each step of the ice-cleaning process give readers a rudimentary but adequate overview of how the vehicle works. The book is cut into the shape of a Zamboni machine (and driver), but the unusual format adds nothing of substance and even detracts from the story. Each page turn removes a section of the Zamboni, but the image under the cutaway doesn’t necessarily match, creating pages with two confusingly juxtaposed scenes. Though the pages are thick, they are prone to fraying, and the edges remain sharp and jab fingers painfully, especially around the severe cuts defining the driver’s face. The pen-and-ink–style digital art is underwhelming, and attempts to make the art feel lively fall flat. A puppy sitting next to the driver is far too rabbitlike, and the American flag found on every page looks odd, as if a poor quality sticker were applied over the images. There’s a single hockey player of color; the driver and crowds are white.
While an audience of young vehicle aficionados or avid skaters might be attracted, this is a disappointing and poorly designed book . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-27773-9
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Despite an educational veneer, this is mostly a noisy toy book.
Listen to a few bars of famous Mozart compositions, as interpreted by animated cartoon animals.
Showcasing—or at least playing—six different Mozart pieces, the book’s pages include clear, inset plastic buttons with embedded chips; each triggers a short, approximately 20-second snippet of music. Some will be familiar, such as a variation on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and some less so—but little ones will likely enjoy pushing the buttons repeatedly whether they recognize the music or not. Predictably, the sound quality produced by a tiny speaker compressed within a board book is not especially clear or crisp. In fact, unless the book is partially opened to the final page, the sounds are somewhat muffled, a distinct problem for a book dedicated to an orchestral composer. Flat, digitally rendered illustrations are heavy on primary colors and low on nuance, but they are charming enough as they valiantly attempt to interpret the music, with bears in classical garb dancing to “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.” It’s confusing that “Sonata Facile,” a piano piece that “moves swiftly along,” is played by a young tortoise; somewhat more successful is the dramatization of the short text’s (somewhat forced) musical metaphors, such as the “merry and bright” tropical birds that enjoy the “Clarinet Concerto.”
Despite an educational veneer, this is mostly a noisy toy book. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-54710-8
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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