The cozy art and tender verse will appeal to those seeking sentimental bedtime fare.
A quiet and gentle lift-the-flap book from the Sandra Magsamen design franchise.
Through the use of simple endearments, the rhymes invite youngsters to bed, “Good night, my little buttercup. / It’s off to bed for you. // Good night, my precious baby bear. / May all your dreams come true.” The right page features a friendly cartoon drawing of the endearment embodied, such as a smiling flower, an open-armed teddy bear and a playful monkey, on a large, page-covering flap. Underneath the flap, the character appears to be blissfully asleep. The facing page and the verso of each flap feature the text in a loose typeface that has a handwritten feel. The characters and a few key words in the text are outlined in dotted lines, reminiscent of stitch-work. It is odd that the fine print on the back cover states, “Recommended for ages 3 & up,” since the rounded cartoons in highly saturated colors will appeal to babies, the flaps will entice toddlers, and there are no choking hazard warnings. The tactile crescent moon, constructed of a “safe & nontoxic” polyurethane foam and covered with sparkly fabric, is a playful gimmick, but it will make spine-out shelving difficult in bookcases.
The cozy art and tender verse will appeal to those seeking sentimental bedtime fare. (Board book. 0-18 mos.)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-17691-0
Page Count: 10
Publisher: LB Kids/Little, Brown
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
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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