Despite a few foibles, it is a playful choice for toddlers.
This French import is a matching game with sliding panels and scenes to play I Spy and other suggested activities.
Each verso presents a busy, colorful scene with animals engaged in human activities around a common theme, with such caption labels as “Vroom” (ground vehicles) or “At the Market.” The recto pages feature eight rectangular, easy-to-move sliding panels with one object depicted in four differently colored pairs. Little ones are encouraged to try four different activities with a caregiver: “Find a Pair” (a memory game with the sliding panels), “Look and Find” (a search in the larger scene for the object that’s pictured under the sliding panels), “Time to Hide” (hiding pairs of objects by sliding the panels one color at a time), and “I Spy” (naming objects of a particular color). While Mathy’s art is whimsically simplified and rendered in muted bold colors, some objects may be difficult for youngsters to name either due to their stylized depictions or readers’ unfamiliarity with them; the “spring riders” and the “spinner” (or merry-go-round) on the “At the Park” double-page spread, for instance, may be unfamiliar due to their scarcity on North American playgrounds. There is a wider array of color choices than in many color concept books, including beige, turquoise, and hot pink.
Despite a few foibles, it is a playful choice for toddlers. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-2-40801-614-2
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The perfect baby-shower gift for Brooklyn hipsters, but all others, including the core baby-toddler audience, should...
A baby’s everyday world is paired with the sites and trends of Brooklyn, New York.
The left-hand page displays something a toddler might recognize (blocks, dominoes, and a rocking horse, for instance) with corresponding landmarks claimed by Brooklyn hipsters (Brooklyn Bridge, the Domino Sugar factory, and Jane’s Carousel) on the facing page. The art is graphically interesting, with flat planes of highly saturated, digital color on solid backgrounds as simple, white captions float above. A few of the images are toddler-friendly, such as the ABC blocks that are matched with the subway logos for the J/M/Z trains, but most will prove too abstract for little ones still learning to name their world. Human figures are created by layering just some features on the negative space of the backgrounds, which means almost all lack significant facial features and several even lack limbs. Many of the scenes are quite adult (a row of tap handles from a “Biergarten” is paired with a line of kindergarten students) and others are so specific to the “hipster” parts of north Brooklyn (two people running to catch the always-too-short-for-the-platform G train; a passenger “manspreading” on the L train) that they might not even be understood by residents from south Brooklyn.
The perfect baby-shower gift for Brooklyn hipsters, but all others, including the core baby-toddler audience, should “Fuhgeddaboudit.” (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-57687-785-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: POW!
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A spectacular addition to the bathtime routine.
Pond animals join little ones in the tub.
The flora and fauna of the pond come to life in this bathtime book. Bold black-and-white illustrations are printed on foam-filled fabric-paper pages, thick lines creating easily identifiable creatures that are also fairly realistic. When the book is submerged in water, bright primary colors spontaneously burst through, bringing the animals to life. Little ones will delight in having a book to read in the tub. Caregivers can also give their little readers paintbrushes and cups of water to dip in and “paint” the animals by hand. The animals include a swan, a water vole, a family of ducks (that, charmingly, say, “quackity quack”), a fish, and a dragonfly. Series companion Color Me: Who’s in the Ocean publishes concurrently and features a crab, a jellyfish, a whale, an octopus, and a sea horse. The fabric dries quickly and is ready to be dunked in the water many times over.
A spectacular addition to the bathtime routine. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68297-140-6
Page Count: 8
Publisher: QEB Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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