Bound to be as popular as a bubble bath.
It’s clean-up time for a delightful flock of chicks.
A cute but dirt-flecked ball of teal fluff, proudly sprouting three tiny feathers on its head and an additional three on its tail, heads to a grand, old-fashioned porcelain clawfoot tub in a tiled bathroom with a checkerboard floor. Three more chicks—pink, peach, and mango—enthusiastically join the preparations, each in charge of one ingredient: “Sponge, bird”; “Soap, bird”; “Shampoo, bird.” As the original bird runs off, the unseen narrator asks, “What have you forgotten?” Bath toys—an essential element! Everyone shares nicely. All four chicks and the toys just barely fit in the tub, but there’s always room for bubbles. As the bath bubbles over, the narrator wonders if the chicks are still there underneath. “Ah! There you are. Silly billies.” Then it’s time to rinse, dry off, and preen like the pristine puffballs they are. But wait: “Who else needs a bath?” Six completely different baby birds—a penguin, an owl, a flamingo, a toucan, a stork, and a hummingbird—cram themselves into the tub as our protagonists helpfully bring supplies. The towels’ colorful rainbow design matches the book’s endpapers. Background details are clear, but the focus is on the birds. The utterly adorable chicks have big eyes and pale pastel feathers.
Bound to be as popular as a bubble bath. (Picture book. 0-4)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781250392237
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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