Delightfully delicious.
This short, sweet, and silly Thanksgiving puppet book is no turkey.
Despite a title suggestive of a treatise on unrepentant cannibalism, this book should prove a read-aloud delight for caregivers and toddlers alike. Seemingly indestructible, it features plush turkey feathers that extend from the top of the book to adorn the turkey depicted on the cover and on each succeeding two-page set piece. The message is simple: “If kisses were gobbles, I’d gobble you up! // I’d gobble your nose… // and your cute little toes.” The brief text includes only two additional sentences, with a total of five additional “gobbles.” “Gobbles” may be read aloud, turkey-style, or while miming munching of the relevant extremities; either way, much giggling should ensue. Author/illustrator Magsamen’s artwork is done in faux-needlecraft style, as though assembled from pieces of felt stitched to the backgrounds, and embellished by copious hearts. The two turkey protagonists are rendered with a nonrealistic, cartoonish simplicity, with blank expressions that nonetheless imply affection, curiosity, and playfulness. They’d look right at home in a Thanksgiving episode of South Park. Varied compositions, with turkey No. 2 in the foreground or on a distant barn roof, or turkey No. 1 standing on grass, then on a fence, and then backside toward readers, create an impressive sense of action while keeping turkey No. 1 firmly attached to its feathers.
Delightfully delicious. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-11092-0
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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