Fox’s inimitable rhyming text and Horacek’s buoyant illustrations offer youngsters another winning choice.
Siblings Bonnie and Ben show off the numerous nursery rhymes they know while they walk with friend and mentor Skinny Doug.
When they reach a familiar hill, they launch into “Jack and Jill.” The sight of a couple of sheep ahead prompts a recital of “Little Bo Peep.” A plum tree they happen upon brings on “Little Jack Horner.” And a hairy black spider hanging from a lamppost elicits “Little Miss Muffet.” After the stars come out on their return home, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” precedes their going to bed, all rhymed out. Fox and Horacek previously teamed up for the effervescent Where is the Green Sheep (2004) and do so again to create a delightful narrative anchored by a repeated rhymed refrain. Between each traditional verse Skinny Doug exclaims: “I love it, I love it! / Well done, and hurrah! / Can you tell me another? / How clever you are!” (This will read as assonance in most parts of the U.S. but is likely a perfect rhyme in Fox’s native Australia.) The colorfully stylized cartoon artwork, familiar from the duo’s previous work, gives this jaunty, rambunctious outing extra flair as the nursery characters, painted in an array of skin hues, join in to trail Bonnie, Ben, and Skinny Doug (all white-presenting).
Fox’s inimitable rhyming text and Horacek’s buoyant illustrations offer youngsters another winning choice. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5352-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
As a book, mildly satisfying; as a greeting card, rather expensive.
A cheery board book that plays the familiar tune.
Anthropomorphic animals, digitally illustrated with a vintage style and palette, play different musical instruments as they make their ways to a cafe to celebrate Otter’s birthday. There’s not much of a story arc in its 10 pages, which lends the book a greeting-card feel. Each spread highlights an animal or two and their respective instruments: Bear plays a flute, Badger strums a guitar, Wolf drives by with a bass in its truck, Cat plays violin, and birthday boy Otter hears Moose on the piano. Press a shiny musical note in each illustration, and the book plays an instrumental line from the familiar song. The quality of the recordings is quite good, capturing the sound and tone of each instrument, and the culminating spread is an ensemble playing the full song. A “glowing candle” is promoted on the cover along with the book’s musical feature, and it appears on a cake on the final spread when all the animals from the prior pages gather to celebrate Otter’s special day. In a potentially confusing turn, Wolf holds the cake instead of playing bass (a fox has stepped in), and an opossum and a rabbit play tambourine, though they weren’t pictured with instruments earlier.
As a book, mildly satisfying; as a greeting card, rather expensive. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9943-7
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
While this hardly reinvents the wheel, it is a solid addition to the children’s lullaby-book genre.
Spend the day with a little bunny and their papa as they explore the world around them to the familiar tune of “Hush, Little Baby.”
“Hush, little bunny, don’t you cry. // Papa’s gonna give you the big blue sky. / And if that big blue sky clouds over, // Papa’s gonna give you a patch of clover.” The winter snow has melted, and Papa is ready to take his little bunny out into the beautiful spring world. From tasty patches of clover to nibble to scary hawks to hide from, Papa teaches little bunny everything they need to know about being a bunny in the meadow. More importantly, he shows that he will always be there for the little bunny. Charming illustrations bring the bunny duo to life and will certainly catch children’s eyes right off the bat. Done in Stein’s characteristically loose and scratchy style, the bunnies frolic and gambol with abandon. Despite the reference to danger in the form of the hawks, the illustration depicts them wheeling in the sky in the distance; when the bunnies take shelter, they are cozily nestled in a burrow with no predator in sight. Caregivers will be sure to relate to the loving papa bunny, while children will enjoy singing along to the lullaby.
While this hardly reinvents the wheel, it is a solid addition to the children’s lullaby-book genre. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-284522-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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