Unlikely to win Peppa any new admirers, but her steadfast fans will be pleased as punch with this paean to Mummy Pig.
Peppa Pig, of British TV and Nick Jr. fame, celebrates all the wonderful things about her mommy.
Peppa thinks her mommy, Mummy Pig, is the best and prettiest mommy in the world. She goes on to extol her virtues, observing that her mommy is graceful (most of the time) and serious (except when she is silly). She works “very hard at home… / and when she’s outside.” Here, Mummy Pig is pictured typing at a computer and then, decked out in firefighter gear, putting out the fire on a cooking grill with a hose. Mummy is also very smart and ready with hugs when the children are scared, and she always finds time to play. The perhaps overwhelming message here—that mothers (and women and girls) are strong, vibrant creatures who possess many varied (and sometimes-conflicting) traits and talents—is clear: “My mommy can do anything she puts her mind to… / especially if someone tells her she can’t do it!” The simple, digital illustrations feature four rather odd-looking piggies built of simple shapes with sticks for arms and legs, perfect pink circles on their cheeks and chunky lines for smiles.
Unlikely to win Peppa any new admirers, but her steadfast fans will be pleased as punch with this paean to Mummy Pig. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-46804-6
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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