Sure to prompt little fingers into joyful action.
A favorite baby-and-toddler activity receives an upbeat celebration that will get those fingers going. Watch out!
The gang of frazzled felines that populate this outing are truly the cat's meow. Based on Boynton's song of the same title, the text is reproduced in a colored, patterned font that amps the energy right up. A forlorn little kitty, paws clasped in front of his body, appears anxious (though slightly intrigued) when a trio of toms encourages him to join in the fun. “Gitchy-gitchy / Goo Gotta / Ready, Set, Go!” It doesn't take long before the cautious cat jumps in on this chorus line with dramatic leaps and fluttering fingers. A little birdie acts as a square-dance caller, enunciating each beat (“Goo bop. / Gitchy-goo bop”). The shaggy, large-nosed felines are tremendously expressive in their synchronized movements and maintain a rollicking pace. “We can tickle high. / We can tickle low. / We can tickle QUICKQUICKQUICK / as fast as we can go!” (Here, the page is filled with iterations of "gitchy gitchy gitchy" in different colors.) At the end, the gang sprawls on the floor, exhausted, after a truly monumental tickle-fest.
Sure to prompt little fingers into joyful action. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7611-6883-6
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
These latest adventures of the Bloodhound Gang (from public TV's 3-2-1 Contact) have a little more zip than the dismally perfunctory lust two (p. 800, J-186), but there is still little evidence of the Fleischman wit, inventiveness, and high spirits. And of course the idea of three kids investigating for an insurance company is too far-fetched for any nine-year-old's reality meter. But that's the situation in The Case of the Flying Clock, when Vikki, Ricardo, and Zach check out the theft of a snobbish horologist's flying pendulum clock. "Once belonged to Louis," says pompous Mr. Keefe—Louis XVI, that is. But because they know that steam will fog a mirror and salty water makes objects more buoyant, the Gang deduces that Mr. Keefe did not see a red-haired robber, as he claimed, but instead dumped his plastic-wrapped clock in his wishing-well pending future removal. The Case of the Secret Message brings the Bloodhounds up against a purse snatcher, a smuggler called Mr. Big, his bodyguard Muscles, and a little old lady who seems first a victim, then a cohort, and at last reveals herself as a young policewoman. Perhaps the point of the series is that the TV tie-in will lead habitual viewers to print. In any case, these belong with the merchandise mysteries.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1981
ISBN: 0394847652
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1981
Little ones will delight in reading and playing this game again and again.
A wonderfully interactive 1990 Gomi creation that has been translated into English at last.
The board book opens wide to become nine different faces with two die-cut eyeholes that invite readers to use them as masks. This peekaboo game is played with mostly animals, such as a bear, a cat, a mouse, a penguin and a frog. The text encourages youngsters to guess what each animal is with a one-sentence clue on the upper-left corner of one page and the answer on the upper-right: “I like to eat honey. / I am a bear. // I like to chase mice. / I am a cat.” The endeavor takes a delightfully silly turn with the introduction of a robot that enjoys fixing things and a cheerful monster that likes to tickle. The last spread presents a brown-skinned child of unspecified gender who says, “I like to play peekaboo. / I am your friend.” Gomi’s flat watercolor cartoons in muted hues using simplified forms are perfect for peekaboo. Since many toddlers can be scared of masks, the small size of the book, which will only cover part of an adult face, and the friendly tone of the art, make the fun nonthreatening.
Little ones will delight in reading and playing this game again and again. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4521-0835-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
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