Hours of amusement for budding Beethovens.
Brief but noisy fun in this “press and listen” introduction to musical instruments for tots.
A piano-playing penguin, a trumpet-tooting bear, a twanging tiger with a guitar, and a drum kit–bashing bunny make beautiful music in this charming, interactive board book. This simple primer hits the right notes, featuring four instruments with their corresponding sounds, four types of animals, and a variety of colorfully descriptive musical sound effects—plinks, twangs, and crashes, to name a few. The illustrations are delightful: simple, bold, and kinetic, all creatures invested with abundant personality as they bang away on their respective instruments. The recto of each double-page spread includes a tab containing an easily activated button that, when pressed, plays a few representative bars of music played on the instrument depicted on those pages. The built-in sound feature should fascinate young readers. At the same time, caregivers will no doubt appreciate the small but easy-to-find on/off switch on the back of the book. The final spread shows the animals playing together as a band: “All together now…make some noise!” Unfortunately, the final button merely repeats the instruments individually instead of playing an ensemble song as the title and illustration imply. Despite this missed opportunity to illustrate song composition, this tuneful tome should engage and entertain.
Hours of amusement for budding Beethovens. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68297-210-6
Page Count: 8
Publisher: QEB Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on...
An exploration of the human body through colorful photos.
Every other double-page spread labels the individual parts on one major area: head, torso, back, arm and leg. Ethnically diverse boy-girl pairs serve as models as arrows point to specific features and captions float nearby. While the book usefully mentions rarely depicted body parts, such as eyebrow, armpit and shin, some of the directional arrows are unclear. The arrow pointing at a girl’s shoulder hits her in the upper arm, and the belly button is hard is distinguish from the stomach (both are concealed by shirts). Facts about the human body (“Guess what? You have tiny hairs in your nose that keep out dirt”) appear on alternating spreads along with photos of kids in action. Baby Animals, another title in the Look & Learn series, uses an identical format to introduce readers to seal pups, leopard cubs, elephant calves, ducklings and tadpoles. In both titles, the final spread offers a review of the information and encourages readers to match baby animals to their parents or find body parts on a photo of kids jumping on a trampoline.
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on the right track despite earlier titles that were much too conceptual for the audience. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4263-1483-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not exactly original, but the execution, with familiar, appealing Cabrera illustrations, is attractive and perfect for...
This simple board book invites little ones to greet baby farm animals (including frog, bunny, and bee) with their corresponding sounds.
The first double-page spread greets readers with a bright yellow smiling sun and the text “Hello, Sun. / Hello, Day. / Wake up, babies. / Time to play!” Each succeeding spread has a distinct, gently patterned background, with very brief text on the verso (“Hello Puppy! / Woof Woof”). Filling up the recto is a vibrant illustration of the baby animal’s face, wide eyed and smiling, outlined in black. The final spread presents the face of a cute baby with chalky brown-gray skin, bright black eyes, and short black hair: “Goo Goo.” Babies and toddlers will enjoy looking at the baby faces, animals and human, and repeating the sounds. A companion book, Goodnight Bear, has a similar pattern of text and illustrations, though the palette is suitably darker. The moon, surprisingly, has its eyes shut, and succeeding spreads depict an owlet, a baby bat, a baby hedgehog, and other familiar nocturnal baby animals, all wide-awake and smiling. The final spread depicts a cute baby with pale skin, blond hair, and closed eyes.
It’s not exactly original, but the execution, with familiar, appealing Cabrera illustrations, is attractive and perfect for the target audience. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0430-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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