A useful tool for caregivers and teachers working with the preschool crowd.
Young children learn about feelings through different animals.
Whether readers feel like a hug-loving baby bear or a fearless lion, this book demonstrates that everyone experiences different feelings and that “it’s fine, by the way, to feel this way!” Butterfield’s rhyming text describes each animal and how they are feeling and reassures readers that these emotions are all healthy. One of the best comparisons is the snail inside its shell: “I’d rather be quiet and on my own. / I’m fine playing games alone.” In addition, Butterfield emphasizes that it’s OK to refuse a hug or feel scared and that readers’ friends might feel that way sometimes, too. While the rhymes aren’t smooth and lyrical, they keep the pace moving and the text appealing. Millward’s illustrations include bright, bold colors: forest greens, deep golden yellows, and beautiful, soft blues. Many of the anthropomorphic animals have exaggerated features—big, round eyes; puckered lips, and expressive faces—which aid in readers’ understanding of the feelings, as the animals mimic the humans. People are drawn in a range of skin tones, from the white of the page to dark brown. Some wear hijabs; one uses a wheelchair. An appended section called “Using This Book” provides adults with helpful information about teaching children to identify and name their feelings as well as how to validate those emotions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A useful tool for caregivers and teachers working with the preschool crowd. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-80338-018-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Welbeck Children's
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
The history of music is a big topic, and more-nuanced explanation is needed than the format allows.
This ambitious board book aims to promote an eclectic appreciation for music of all kinds.
Music, from drumming to computer-generated sound, is introduced as a linear historical sequence with two pages devoted to each of 11 styles, including medieval European, orchestral, blues, and more. Most of the musicians are portrayed as children, many with darker skin tones and with hairstyles and garb commonly associated with each type of music. Radford works in a retro cartoon mode, varying his presentation slightly with each new musical style but including a dancing dachshund on almost every spread, presumably to enhance child appeal. Unfortunately, the book just can’t succeed in reducing such a wide range of musical styles to toddler-appropriate language. The first two spreads read: “We start with clapping, tapping, and drums. // Lutes, flutes, and words are what we become.” The accompanying illustrations show, respectively, half-naked drummers and European court figures reading, writing, and playing a flute. Both spreads feature both brown-skinned and pale-skinned figures. At first reading this seems innocent enough, but the implication that clapping and drumming are somehow less civilized or sophisticated than a European style is reinforced in Stosuy’s glossary of music terms. He describes “Prehistoric Music” as “rhythmic music [made] with rocks, sticks, bones, and…voices,” while “Renaissance Music” is defined as “multiple melodies played at the same time.”
The history of music is a big topic, and more-nuanced explanation is needed than the format allows. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0941-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A worthwhile message that just doesn't quite fly.
A sadly lackluster paean to the premise that “no two snowflakes are alike, / almost, almost… / but not quite.”
Beginning with snowflakes, Baker then branches out to celebrate the uniqueness of other things, some found in nature, some manmade—nests, branches, leaves and forests. “No two fences, long and low, / no two roads—where do they go? / No two bridges, wood or stone, / no two houses— / anyone home?” His ultimate message, arrived at on almost the final page, is that every living thing is one of a kind. While it is certainly an important message, the very young may not make the leap from the animals and things that populate the book to humans, which make no appearance. Baker’s digital illustrations fill the spreads with simple shapes and soft, woodsy colors. The two red birds (rather like crestless cardinals) that fly through this wintry wonderland steal the show. Their expressions are adorable, their antics endearing and rather anthropomorphic—one skis, while the other tries to pelt a fox with snowballs. But they may not be enough to carry the flat text and lack of a story line. Indeed, the book depends on the rhymes and the cute birds to keep the pages turning.
A worthwhile message that just doesn't quite fly. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4424-1742-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
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