Rathmann (Officer Buckle and Gloria, 1995, etc.) offers a loony look at the shank of one child’s evening in this manic picture book. The story is in the pictures; the text consists of the calling out of the countdown of the last ten minutes to bedtime by a boy’s father, comfortably ensconced in his armchair and behind a newspaper. In the newspaper and on a computer screen, though, readers glimpse an ad for www.hamstertours.com. The boy’s hamster has apparently offered the ten-minute bedtime tour to every hamster in the world, and while the boy snacks, brushes his teeth, and reads a story (this very book, as it happens), more and more hamsters arrive, in toy cars and oatmeal-box trucks and on foot. By the time it is “2 minutes to bedtime,” our hero either realizes he’s forgotten his bath or decides to give the multitudinous hamsters more of a show, so he leaps into the tub and out, dries himself, uses the potty, gets back into his green-striped pajamas, and into bed shouting an answering “Bedtime!” to his father’s cry. The hamsters melt away and the father comes in for a goodnight kiss. The colors are clear and cheerful; the boy, with his saucer eyes and fuzzy slippers, will enchant any child who has listened to a similar countdown to lights out. (Picture book. 2-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-23103-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
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Dancing is one of the most universal elements of cultures the world over.
In onomatopoeic, rhyming text, Bolling encourages readers to dance in styles including folk dance, classical ballet, breakdancing, and line dancing. Read aloud, the zippy text will engage young children: “Tappity Tap / Fingers Snap,” reads the rhyme on the double-page spread for flamenco; “Jiggity-Jig / Zig-zag-zig” describes Irish step dancing. The ballet pages stereotypically include only children in dresses or tutus, but one of these dancers wears hijab. Overall, children included are racially diverse and vary in gender presentation. Diaz’s illustrations show her background in animated films; her active child dancers generally have the large-eyed sameness of cartoon characters. The endpapers, with shoes and musical instruments, could become a matching game with pages in the book. The dances depicted are described at the end, including kathak from India and kuku from Guinea, West Africa. Unfortunately, these explanations are quite rudimentary. Kathak dancers use their facial expressions extensively in addition to the “movements of their hands and their jingling feet,” as described in the book. Although today kuku is danced at all types of celebrations in several countries, it was once done after fishing, an activity acknowledged in the illustrations but not mentioned in the explanatory text.
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63592-142-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
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The beat is all around her when a girl takes a walk in the park with her mother.
On a lovely summer day, a young African-American girl in a bright pink sundress and matching sneakers sees, smells, sings, claps and snaps her fingers to an internal rhythm. As a boom box plays its song and a drummer taps his beat, neighborhood children join her in an energetic, pulsating dance culminating in a rousing musical parade. Schofield-Morrison’s brief text has a shout-it-out element as each spread resounds with a two-word phrase: “I shook a rhythm with my hips. /SHAKE SHAKE”; “I tapped the rhythm with my toes. / TIP TAP.” Morrison’s full-bleed, textured oil paintings capture the joy of a mother and daughter in an urban park surrounded by musicians, food vendors and many exuberant children. Read this aloud with music playing loudly—not in the background. Morrison is a Coretta Scott King/New Talent Award winner, and this is a fine debut for his wife in their first collaboration.
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-178-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
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