This simple and sweet bilingual vocabulary book is a winner.
A Spanish/English primer infused with an element of fun and games reinforces both language and visual skills.
The follow-up to Loteria: First Words (2018) brings even more vocabulary to young readers. Bright, clean graphics and easy-to-read labels adorn the double-page spreads. Each of the 10 vocabulary words that appear in the book are taken from the traditional Mexican lotería card game. The Spanish term (including the article, to indicate gender) is printed in bold type above the English translation against a colorful background on verso. On recto, the classic lotería cards have each been given a cute makeover that will appeal to young audiences—from the vibrant red ketchup bottle representing “la botella” to the fanged but friendly-looking black spider, or “la araña.” Readers who have enjoyed playing the lotería game will appreciate the cultural connection, and those who aren’t familiar with it yet will still delight in the appealing illustrations and novel vocabulary. Children will be engaged with the opportunity to learn words in two languages. The mermaid and musician are depicted with pale and very light brown skin, dark brown hair, and blue and green eyes, respectively.
This simple and sweet bilingual vocabulary book is a winner. (Board book. 6 mos.-4)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-947971-56-1
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Lil' Libros
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As a parable of gender nonconformity this is too disjointed to work. Don’t bother.
A young boy accepts his unusual shadow.
In this world, everyone has a sentient, self-directed shadow that represents their innermost self. The White, floppy-haired main character explains that his shadow “is quite different, it’s not what you think.” Most of the shadows in his family are blue, but his is pink and “loves…princesses, fairies, and things ‘not for boys.’ ” In awkward rhyming couplets the narrator anxiously awaits the first day of school, where all of his apparently mixed-gender classmates seem to have blue shadows. When he's instructed (via a rhyming note) to wear his shadow’s “favourite thing” to school, he arrives in a tutu—then runs home when everyone stares at him. His father, a burly masculine triangle of a man and also White, dons a pink hooded dress in solidarity to escort his son back to school, and all is well. The central conceit of this story leaves many questions unsatisfyingly unanswered: Many girl-presenting classmates have blue shadows, so how are shadow colors assigned at birth? How can a person’s shadow have a discrete sexual orientation? Why use rhyming couplets when they lead to tortured constructions like “I join a small group, though in I don’t blend”? (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.8-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 20.8% of actual size.)
As a parable of gender nonconformity this is too disjointed to work. Don’t bother. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-648-72875-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Larrikin House/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
The importance of the STEM fields in our world cannot be overstated. But the importance of understanding early childhood...
Another board book attempts to communicate complex scientific ideas to very young children.
This book and its companions, all aimed at very young children, presume the intended audience is familiar with conventional symbols to convey information, as all the explanations are made visually by means of arrows that indicate airflow. It stretches the imagination to believe toddlers will follow explanations delivered that way. Even more baffling is the assumption that toddlers have in their vocabulary arsenal words such as “flow,” “angle,” “deflect,” “lift,” and “thrust.” Further complicating the attempt is the oversimplification necessary to communicate to youngsters. Boiling concepts down to such statements as “This ship is full of fuel. / If the fuel goes out, // the ship goes forward” perhaps ought to have indicated the futility of this particular effort. In companion General Relativity, there is a page with horizontal and vertical lines forming a grid. Many toddlers might identify this as a piece of mosquito netting, but they would be wrong, as it is in fact “flat space.” Later they will also find out that “Mass drags space.” And “Space drags mass.” The explanations in Newtonian Physics and Quantum Physics are no better. Adults wishing to introduce children to the laws of physics will be more effective—and have more fun—playing with blocks, making waves in the bathtub, and launching paper planes into the air.
The importance of the STEM fields in our world cannot be overstated. But the importance of understanding early childhood development when writing for preschoolers cannot be overstated either. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5625-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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