This may not encourage sleep, but it probably will prompt more questions about animals after dark.
What do animals do when children are sleeping?
Featuring creatures young children are likely to know, this book has the answers. Each spread’s left-hand page describes the animal’s daytime activities, while the right focuses on nighttime behaviors. Realistic watercolor illustrations highlight the animals and, for the night scenes, incorporate the midnight blue introduced on the endpapers. Golden moonlight encircles sleeping creatures, including a frog, ducks, and horses. Young readers will easily recognize the brilliant fluttering daytime butterflies and see children feeding a pet goldfish or playing with another pet. The three or four couplets on each spread end in rhyme (with a fun bush/shushhh pair) or near rhyme (down/found, sleep/feet, line/eye, safe/late). Given the couplets and rhyme, readers may expect a rhythmic read, but the lack of consistent meter makes smooth reading a challenge. However, unusual nighttime facts are a plus. “With tiny clawed feet, [a butterfly] hangs upside-down, / making it difficult to be found.” Goldfish sleep with their eyes open since they have no eyelids; ducks sometimes sleep in a line, with the first and last guarding the rest; bees’ antennae droop. (Unfortunately, both illustration and text incorrectly imply that bees’ comb is aligned horizontally instead of vertically.) Although the story ends with a bedtime message, most listeners will probably not be sleepy at the end. Recurring child characters present White, with one scene including racially diverse friends.
This may not encourage sleep, but it probably will prompt more questions about animals after dark. (author's note) (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-58089-521-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The book is published in two bindings, conventional and board; given the complexity of the topic, use with preschoolers is...
A quartet of curious babies wearing glasses and spacesuits explores the moon, the sun, and the planets.
In speech bubbles, various babies ask questions (“Why are we floating?”) or make comments (“It’s so quiet”), leading to answers or information in the narrative text about gravity on Earth and sound in space. Using bright, bold colors and simple lines and dots, Kastner gives each planet personality and facial features. Mercury appears in sunglasses because it is “closest to the sun.” (Caregivers will note that thanks to artistic license, Venus is depicted as magenta rather than dun.) The order of presentation is confusing, especially given its very young intended audience. One early spread shows the sun, “the center of our solar system,” yet a schematic spread showing the sun surrounded by the planets occurs a few pages after information is given about Earth and its moon. Although the descriptions of the planets are simple—“Mercury is the smallest planet and closest to the sun. Venus spins backward!”—the topic is not one that is within babies’ developmental grasp. The same babies (one black, one brown, and two pale) are back in companion title Ocean, exploring marine life at the surface and in the depths.
The book is published in two bindings, conventional and board; given the complexity of the topic, use with preschoolers is recommended despite the “Baby” branding . (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31204-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Engaging images paired to a less-than-successful text.
There are special names for animal and human homes, but we all call Earth our home.
In her first solo effort, Mundorff (who illustrated Beth Ferry’s A Small Blue Whale, 2017) offers a clever but not entirely successful way to think about how context can change meaning. Beavers live in lodges, otters in couches, and lions in dens; pigs call pigsties home, and a red panda makes its home in a tree. A simple statement about each animal’s home is illustrated across the gutter by a picture of the animal in situ; this is followed by a bright, busy, full-bleed double-page spread showing these animals clothed and living as humans would—enjoying a ski lodge, watching TV on a couch, sitting by the fire in a den, messing up a shared bedroom, or reading in a treehouse. But then the message gets muddled: “One could say dolphins live in pods, herds, or even teams.” These are collective nouns, not names of dwelling places; worse, the noun chosen for whimsical treatment is “team,” as they are depicted playing underwater baseball. Dolphin groups are called pods in both customary and scientific nomenclature. The idea of dwelling places returns with lofts for pigeons and neighborhoods and towns for prairie dogs. The prairie dog town morphs into “a town on Earth, a place / all creatures call home / and live with love,” but by now, readers and listeners may have turned away.
Engaging images paired to a less-than-successful text. (additional facts) (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-21162-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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