A fun and interactively informative introduction to the animal kingdom.
Partial views of several animals highlighting noses ask readers to guess the name of each based on a singular descriptive word.
Opposite concepts are presented for each pair of noses, as in the opening pages: “big nose / tiny nose.” The rather substantial nose of a proboscis monkey is on the left page, and the wee snout of a mouse is on the right. The full animal is never revealed in the black-outlined full-bleed paintings, requiring a guess of the animal’s name. So for the proboscis monkey, a portion of its face and body are shown, while for the mouse, just its whiskered nose peeks out from behind a rounded mouse hole. Readers must refer to the endpaper key to confirm the correct answers. The concept continues throughout, pairing shapes, sizes, and other nose-related features. The simplicity of each two-word phrase with its hidden picture provides opportunities for discussion. The familiar animals will be easily identified, while the lesser known, such as the “narrow nose” of a shrew or the “red nose” of a mandrill, will need some contemplation. Similarly, Whose Tail employs the same strategy; tails are drawn from a fairly easy mixture of farm and zoo animals except, perhaps, for the meerkat. Both end with human portrayals, Nose showing a man’s mustachioed nose and a child’s freckled one (both are white) while Tail depicts children of color, one with no tail and the other wearing a fox costume with a big bushy tail.
A fun and interactively informative introduction to the animal kingdom. (Informational picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-9046-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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
An excellent starter book for those looking to raise their children in a bilingual environment.
Niñas y niños learn their ABCs en español.
A is for ardilla (squirrel) and E is for erizo (hedgehog) in this pastel-colored board book. Each page features a different animal or object with a large, scratchily drawn uppercase letter in the top-left corner. (All the text appears to be hand-drawn and frequently displays irregular use of upper- and lowercase conventions.) The upper-right corner of the page spotlights the item’s Spanish and English names, with Spanish printed large on top and English in a smaller hand beneath. The illustrations are warm and sweet, presenting rounded, friendly figures colored with pastel hues. Even inanimate objects, such as the wafle (waffle) and the uvas (grapes), are given smiling faces and welcoming body language. There are separate entries for N for “niña/niño” (“girl/boy”) and Ñ for ñu (translated as “wildebeest” rather than “gnu”). It appears that X (xilófono) and Y (yak) are as troublesome for abecederaries in Spanish as in English. After the alphabet is finished, the backmatter provides the pronunciation of each letter for non–Spanish speakers and phonetic spelling for each creature along with the further introduction of the sounds ll, ch, and rr. The book is handsomely bound in faux hardcover style, boasting sturdy pages and smooth textures.
An excellent starter book for those looking to raise their children in a bilingual environment. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63322-283-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr.
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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