This is children’s music grown-ups won’t mind hearing over and over, no trouble at all.
For listeners of all ages, Boynton and Michael Ford’s latest CD/songbook combination presents 12 new songs in a country-western mode.
In this grand collection for children and their caregivers, the producers of Philadelphia Chickens (2002) sample styles beyond country music: cowboy, bluegrass and blues, honkytonk and hillbilly rock. The book has three sections: lyrics (or at least the first verse or two), written by Boynton and illustrated with her cartoons; musical notation (melody and chords) and complete words; and performers’ biographies. On the CD, the all-star collection of musicians includes names familiar to fans of the genre. They put these songs over convincingly, although it’s hard to imagine there weren’t some giggles along the way. The tunes, some written in collaboration with keyboardist Ford, are catchy and appealing, the arrangements simple enough to understand the words and the lyrics, which are appropriate for young children. There’s heartbreak, as a bunny bewails how “[t]hey make me clean up my room”; a small boy’s delight in “Trucks”; the dreamy “When Pigs Fly”; and two different versions of the titular “Frog Trouble.” The background percussion for “I’ve Got a Dog” includes The Scotty Brothers playing spoons. “Alligator Stroll” is followed by instructions and diagrams for simple dance steps. Backmatter includes instructions for making a folded-paper frog puppet.
This is children’s music grown-ups won’t mind hearing over and over, no trouble at all. (Songbook/CD. 3 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7611-7176-8
Page Count: 70
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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