An innovative approach to teaching children about ecosystems and life cycles.
Some babies look like their parents—but some do not!
In this fetchingly illustrated, slide-the-tab book from France, young readers learn about insects, birds, and animals that inhabit a range of familiar ecosystems, including ponds, forests, meadows, and mountains. On each page, children slide a tab with a labeled picture of a creature early in its life cycle to reveal what the creature will look like as an adult. Babin includes a variety of intuitive choices, such as otters and their pups, as well as less predictable pairs like tadpoles and frogs and dragonflies and larvae. (The “kid” that grows into a “sheep” may raise eyebrows.) The text is cleverly integrated into illustrations of animals, insects, and birds in their habitats and is rendered in the first person, implying that each creature is speaking directly to readers about its habitat, feeding habits, and life cycle. A baby otter, for example, says that it is a good swimmer like its mother; a caterpillar says that when it gets older it will grow wings. Each two-page spread is packed with facts that are perfect for very young naturalists. The use of baby animals as narrators combined with the slide-the-tab design makes this book incredibly inviting to young readers, although the lack of narrative structure may make it challenging for group read-alouds.
An innovative approach to teaching children about ecosystems and life cycles. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-2-408-02389-8
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun, new take on droppings.
Youngsters can learn about where and how various animals, domestic and wild, relieve themselves.
Via a pull-tab embedded in each recto (not, thankfully, in the rectum) readers can see the before and after, and a goldfish in a bowl leaves a trail while swimming. The verso asks each creature where it does its business, and then a (sometimes-forced) rhyming quatrain, translated from Italian, answers the question: “And where do YOU poop, mouse? / When inside my tummy / Starts to feel not so good / It’s time for a poop / On these chips made of wood!” The final double-page spread queries readers: “And where do YOU poop?” A redheaded, White toddler’s face is visible below this question; the pull-tab on the right opens a bathroom to reveal a White toddler, this time with medium brown hair, happily and modestly sitting on a blue toddler potty. The accompanying quatrain provides some developmentally appropriate guidance for feeling the signs of a movement coming on. Baruzzi’s art is droll and graphically clean (inasmuch as the depiction of excrement can be described that way). Little fingers may need some help finding the relatively easy-to-open and sturdy pull-tabs, since they blend into each page. It works as both a biology lesson and potty-training encouragement.
A fun, new take on droppings. (Novelty board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66265-042-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Ho-hum.
A riff on the familiar lullaby depicts various animal parents, and then a human father, soothing their sleepy little ones.
An opening spread includes the traditional first verse of the titular lullaby, but instead of depicting a human baby in a treetop cradle, the accompanying illustration shows a large tree as habitat to the animals that are highlighted on subsequent pages. First the perspective zooms in on a painterly illustration rendered in acrylics of a mother squirrel cuddling her baby with text reading “Rock-a-bye Squirrel, / high in the tree, / in Mommy’s arms, / cozy as can be.” In this spread and others the cadence doesn’t quite fit with the familiar tune, and repeated verses featuring different animals—all opening with the “Rock-a-bye” line—don’t give way to the resolution. No winds blow, no boughs break, and the repetitive forced rhythm of the verse could cause stumbles when attempting a read-aloud. The final image of a human father and baby, whose skin tone and hair texture suggest that they are perhaps of South Asian descent, provides pleasing visual resolution in a book with art that outshines text.
Ho-hum. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3753-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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