Babies and toddlers can't anticipate what they have not yet fully experienced, and this book will do little to build...
A bear family anticipates Christmas in this slightly oversized board book.
Overlapping, stocking-shaped pages create easy handholds for a toddler to turn the sturdy card stock nested in a box frame. Each stocking is decorated in busy patterns—red polka dots for Daddy Bear, red, white, and blue stripes and squares for Momma, green trees for Baby, etc. The rhyming verses describe an odd assortment of presents that each cheerful bear finds in its stocking—a hat for Daddy, a scarf for Momma, mittens for Bobby. It is hard to imagine that Bonnie Bear would actually exclaim “Perfect for my dolly!” when she finds a choking hazard (buttons) in her stocking. When Baby Bear finds a carrot, he is visibly disappointed. Then the whole family goes outside to make a snowman using the hat, scarf, mittens, buttons, and carrot. With no context or prior experience, young children won't understand the mystery of the odd gifts in the stockings. Toddlers will enjoy turning the pages but won't have patience for the rhyming verses or vague storyline.
Babies and toddlers can't anticipate what they have not yet fully experienced, and this book will do little to build excitement or even curiosity about Christmas; better just bundle up and build a snowman instead. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-79455-8
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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