The subtitle says it all.
A board book that buzzes with assurances of love.
Each rhyming four-line stanza reads like a sentimental valentine but manages to include the name of the featured critter while describing some of its salient characteristics. The smiling bees on the first spread show through a shaped cutout on the cover. The next six spreads each present one bas-relief bug on the left and a diecut that incorporates the other on the right. Turn the page, and the cutout allows the pair to be seen with noses touching, with a “kiss kiss” caption to make sure readers understand what’s going on. The sunny shades of yellow on the bee’s page shift to red for the ladybugs, purple for fireflies, blue-green for snails, green for caterpillars, and orange for their cocoons. Unfortunately, the black background against which the purple butterflies emerge surrounded by a rainbow of flowers dilutes the intensity of the colors on what could have been the brightest page. This book can be shared at many levels—to talk about colors or to celebrate spring and love, with a value-added lesson on metamorphosis for older preschoolers. The colors are not named but young children, will recognize them even as they quickly grab each shaped diecut to turn the pages. Thankfully, the pages are extra thick and quite sturdy.
The subtitle says it all. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-639-8
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside.
Readers can count down eight of Santa's reindeer as they jump up and out of the scene.
In each one of the mostly double-page spreads, one reindeer, from Dasher to Blitzen, plays a central role in a winter activity (sledding, ski jumping, ice skating—and soccer and yoga?) that launches the creature into the air. Glitter-speckled tabs, each with small portraits of a member of Santa's herd, appear at either the top or the right side of each page, which little fingers will enjoy flipping. In what looks to be pencil-and-watercolor cartoons, Rogers uses different facial expressions, as well as collars, bows or other accessories, to distinguish the reindeer from one another. Donner (not Donder) and Blitzen are squeezed together on the penultimate spread, likely to keep the page count down. The verse mostly scans, but the rhyme scheme has become the cliché of counting books: "Eight jolly reindeer / stretching up to heaven. / Up goes Dasher / and then there are... // Seven...." Santa, his iconic sleigh and the eight reindeer in flight make a dramatic and required appearance on the book's final double-page spread.
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-65145-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt.
A love song from parents to their child.
This title will seem quite similar to the many others about parents’ deep love for their children. The text is wholly composed of first-person declarations of parental love, and it’s juxtaposed with illustrations of the child with one or both parents. It’s not always clear who the “I” speaking is, and there are a few pages that instead use “we.” Most sentences begin with “I love you more” phrasing to communicate that nothing could undermine parental love: “I love you more than all the sleepless nights…and all the early, tired mornings.” The accompanying pictures depict the child as a baby with weary parents. Later spreads show the child growing up, and the phrasing shifts away from the challenges of parenting to its joys and to attempts to quantify love: “I love you more than all the blades of grass at the park…and all the soccer that we played.” Throughout, Bell’s illustrations use pastel tones and soft visual texture to depict cozy, wholesome scenes that are largely redundant of the straightforward, warm text. They feature a brown-haired family with a mother, father, and child, who all appear to be white (though the father has skin that’s a shade darker than the others’).
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0652-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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