While many will welcome concept books with Richard Scarry art, are these rehashed offerings really necessary with so many of...
Richard Scarry’s iconic characters present nine different colors.
Huckle the cat paints a picture in the featured hue on each of the double-page spreads. Accompanying Huckle are other objects of the same color, like the lettuce, peas and asparagus on the “green” page. Several Busytown characters make cameo appearances driving wacky vehicles, such as Lowly Worm in his red Applecar and Mr. Fixit operating an orange bulldozer. While many of Scarry’s dated references have been avoided, the inclusion of Wild Bill Hiccup wearing a Native American headdress and driving a brown Buffalomobile may trouble 21st-century grown-up readers. An unseen narrator captions the various objects and praises Huckle’s artistic abilities as the cat paints a yellow sun, blueberries and purple grapes. Tabbed labels at the top of the book include a nice range of colors, including pink, gray and brown. A companion title, Let’s Count with Lowly!, follows the same format, but here, numerals and dots for counting index the double-page spread for each number. Starting with the numeral 1 on the cover, Lowly invites readers, along with his friend Huckle, to count various characters, objects and vehicles. The layout in this offering is overly busy, and, unlike most of Scarry’s original titles, the smaller trim size does not give the seven marching band drummers, eight tuba players and more room to breathe.
While many will welcome concept books with Richard Scarry art, are these rehashed offerings really necessary with so many of his classics still in print? (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7641-6601-3
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
There is always room in the Easter basket for a counting book, and many readers may appreciate having another simple,...
A cheerful brown bunny hiding behind the edges of an Easter basket looks just as surprised as young children will be to find the chicks revealed as each egg “hatches.”
With help from a reading partner, young children are encouraged to count down the eggs as they disappear with each page turn. Alternatively, they can count up as the chicks are revealed. A simple phrase at the top of each right-hand page states the number of eggs in the basket. The line at the bottom (half of a rhyming couplet) tells how many chicks readers should look for. The numbers are spelled out, requiring young children to recognize the word instead of the more familiar numeral. On the left-hand page, the spaces previously occupied by an egg begin to fill with meadow plants and critters, eventually becoming a scene as busy and cheerful as a greeting card. This book begs to be touched. Each egg is made of shaped plastic that protrudes through die-cut holes on the verso; they can be pressed but seem to be securely anchored. The pastel chicks are lightly flocked, providing an additional tactile experience. Although the pages are thicker than paper, young fingers may find the holes a convenient way to grip (and possibly tear) the pages.
There is always room in the Easter basket for a counting book, and many readers may appreciate having another simple, nonreligious holiday book. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-74730-1
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Who knew that turning the pages could be the best part of a book?
The concept of this picture book is simple enough: 10 birds topple, slip, and dive their way off the titular twig until there is one left. The text itself echoes familiar singsong-y children’s rhymes like “Five Little Pumpkins.” While it mostly succeeds, there are some awkward spots: “5 on a twig, there used to be more… / SNAP! Don’t say a word, now there are four.” (On each page the number is both spelled out and represented as a numeral). The real scene stealer, however, is the book’s interplay between Cole’s illustrations and the physical pages themselves. In much the same way Eric Carle utilizes the pages in The Very Hungry Caterpillar to show the little critter eating its way through the week, Cole uses pages of increasing width to show how the twig grows shorter as each bird falls and marches off purposefully with the others, all headed toward verso with pieces of twig in their beaks. Stylistically, the book is captivating. The very colorful, egg-shaped birds appear on a single, thin black line on a stark white background. This backdrop stands in powerful contrast to the book’s final two pages, which are set against black negative space, a theme echoed in the book’s feather-print endpapers. The heavy, thick pages make it easy for little hands to participate. The text takes a back seat to the playful and compelling design, which is sure to delight readers.
Who knew that turning the pages could be the best part of a book? (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72821-593-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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