A basic conversation starter that may have a place in the book barns of infant and toddler classrooms.
Ten pages, most with just one clearly labeled image and a tactile surprise, make this French import a suitable addition to the crowded farm field for the very youngest babies.
A hen and a slightly fuzzy chick share the opening double-page spread with a rooster. On subsequent pages, stylized illustrations of a cow, a tractor, a dog, and a horse are easily identified by even very young children, but they may be disappointed at the subtlety of their touch-and-feel elements. The “wheat field,” with raised gold leaves against a yellow background, is challenging both tactilely and as vocabulary. Almost identical “farmers” sport the same brown boots and green coveralls. One has brown skin and short black hair and wears a sun hat, and the other has pale skin and long, red hair that is tied with a scarf, cuing them as male and female, respectively. Feminists might wonder why his tool is active (a shiny rake) while hers is passive (a small, shiny pail). The most successful tactile elements are the pig, whose mud is genuinely sticky, and the sheep’s white fleece. All the people and animals have the same eyes—a white circle with inset black semicircle—positioned so they seem to be looking across the page to their neighbors. Information that older children might look for about noises, habitats, or farm life will not be found here.
A basic conversation starter that may have a place in the book barns of infant and toddler classrooms. (Board book. 3-18 mos.)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 979-1-02760-369-5
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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