While this is the first title in the series aimed directly at babies and young toddlers, the small size of the art and the...
An exploration of color from McBratney and Jeram’s nutbrown hares of Guess How Much I Love You fame.
On the left of each double-page spread, Little Nutbrown Hare encounters an animal or a plant in the featured color, such as a yellow flower, a green frog and a red ladybug. The hare greets these creatures and labels their colors with simple salutations, “Hello, yellow. // Good morning, green. // Hi there, red.” The facing pages caption, in a bold, black type, each of the colors on a slightly mottled and muted background of the shade in question. The last spread bears the text “Hello, Nutbrown!” and shows Big Nutbrown Hare hugging the little one amid the animals and plants from the previous pages. While Jeram’s watercolors are as fluid and playful as her work for the other franchise titles, two things get in the way of a solid presentation: the book’s trim size and its muted hues. The art is too dainty for the size of the pages, which are 5 inches square. The ladybug, in particular, is difficult to make out. Also, the colors are quite pale, which may confuse young learners. The objects on the “red” page look mostly pink, and some of the leaves on the “brown” page look to be a pale orange or yellow.
While this is the first title in the series aimed directly at babies and young toddlers, the small size of the art and the washed-out color values make it an imperfect concept book. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6476-3
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring through rhymed puns and sentimental art.
The title sets the scene for what’s to come: The owl asks the owlet as they fly together, “WHOO loves you?”; the kangaroo and joey make each other “very HOPPY”; and the lioness and cub are a “PURRRFECT pair.” Most of the puns are both unimaginative and groanworthy, and they are likely to go over the heads of toddlers, who are not know for their wordplay abilities. The text is set in abcb quatrains split over two double-page spreads. On each spread, one couplet appears on the verso within a lightly decorated border on pastel pages. On the recto, a full-bleed portrait of the animal and baby appears in softly colored and cozy images. Hearts are prominent on every page, floating between the parent and baby as if it is necessary to show the love between each pair. Although these critters are depicted in mistily conceived natural habitats and are unclothed, they are human stand-ins through and through.
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers. (Board book. 6 mos-2)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-1374-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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