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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Name: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Author: Nosy Crow
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9505-7

From the Sing Along With Me! series

by Nosy Crow ; illustrated by Yu-Hsuan Huang ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2017

A fine birthday present for early readers.

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Newly liberated from copyright protection, the birthday song gets a board book.

Everybody knows “Happy Birthday to You,” and little readers can sing along as they manipulate the sliding mechanisms found within this chunky board book. A little bunny wakes up to be greeted by smiling parents with breakfast in bed—clearly a birthday treat. The bunny opens presents, greets friends, and enjoys birthday cake. The sliding components are quite sturdy, but eager readers may still rip out some of the panels. Before they do, they can slide the parent bunnies into the doorway, “open” the big package that contains a brand-new tricycle, pop some friends up over the hedge, and cause those friends to sway in time to the song. The festive illustrations colored with yellows, purples, and blues will certainly draw little ones in. The similarly crafted and simultaneously publishing Hey Diddle Diddle renders the popular Mother Goose nursery rhyme, allowing readers to jump the cow over the moon on the cover. A QR code is included with each board book, enabling tech-savvy adults to download the songs.

A fine birthday present for early readers. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: March 7, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-7636-9505-7

Page Count: 10

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS | CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
LOIS LOOKS FOR BOB AT THE BEACH
by Nosy Crow ; illustrated by Gerry Turley

- BOOK REVIEW
FIRST WORDS
by Nosy Crow ; illustrated by The Trustees of the British Museum

- BOOK REVIEW
LOIS LOOKS FOR BOB AT HOME
by Nosy Crow ; illustrated by Gerry Turley

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FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2016

An acceptable and sturdy addition to the Easter basket for baby bunnies deemed too young to handle Dorothy Kunhardt's more...

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Following on the successful Five Little Pumpkins (2003), Yaccarino teams with Rabe for bunnies.

The five pastel bunnies are cute enough, and the rhymes are accurate, if somewhat wordy for toddlers. But without a clear one-to-one relationship between the words and the pictures, it is not always clear which bunny is speaking and what is being counted. The bunnies, identified as first, second, and so on, hop around the pages instead of staying in a consistent order as the rhyme implies. Naming them by color might have been a better choice, but that would mean abandoning the finger-play counting-rhyme formula. The children who show up to hunt the eggs are a multicultural cast of cartoonish figures with those in the background drawn as blue and green silhouettes. Though the text on the back cover invites children to count the eggs, there is no hint as to how many eggs they should find. Neither the verse nor the pictures provide counting assistance. The youngest children will not care about any of this; they will be content to point out the different colors of the bunnies and the patterns on the eggs.

An acceptable and sturdy addition to the Easter basket for baby bunnies deemed too young to handle Dorothy Kunhardt's more satisfying but fragile classic, Pat the Bunny. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-225339-2

Page Count: 16

Publisher: HarperFestival

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes

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LLAMA LLAMA TRICK OR TREAT

From the Llama Llama series

by Anna Dewdney ; illustrated by Anna Dewdney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 19, 2014

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In this board book designed for the littlest llama lovers, adorable-as-ever Llama Llama (Llama Llama Red Pajama, 2005, etc.) gets ready for some Halloween fun.

Dewdney’s characteristic spare, apt rhymes convey a lot of action in effortlessly readable fashion. A charming and simple introduction to Halloween and its associated activities, this title finds little Llama Llama choosing and carving a pumpkin, pouring candy into bowls, picking out a costume and, finally, trick-or-treating. The costume Llama Llama decides to don—pointy teeth and a black mask and cape—is enough to frighten and fool his friends but not readers, who will immediately recognize and smile at the silly little mini-Dracula. With Dewdney’s characters as expressive as ever, young readers will be drawn right into the holiday fun, eagerly anticipating which costume Llama Llama will choose and excited to see him scare his friends and score some candy at trick-or-treat. In the equally appealing companion title, Llama Llama Jingle Bells,the little fellow gets ready for Christmas, baking and decorating some cookies in anticipation of Santa’s arrival. This simple holiday title will win Llama Llama new fans, and old friends will want to add it and its companion to their collections. (Board book. 1-2)