All in all, a cheerful bilingual introduction to familiar emotions.
Translating feelings into simple pictures and words is a challenge in one language; this book does it in both English and Spanish.
Eleven emotions are named in English and Spanish opposite a cheery cartoon animal. Lift the almost-full-page flap to find a question (in both languages) above the creature demonstrating the emotion. Happy and sad are straightforward, so the sentence under each flap asks, “Can you show me a happy [or sad] face?” With more complex, nuanced emotions, the question becomes a variation on “How does feeling excited look? / ¿Cómo estar emocionado/a?” (An anthropomorphic star demonstrates.) Gender variants of the Spanish words are consistently indicated by ending the word with o/a. Prompted by changes in facial expressions and posture, young children will readily act out the feelings. A cartoon chick demonstrates happy/feliz, sad/triste, brave/valiente, and afraid/asustado while an angry/enjado elephant, surprised/sorprendida spider, confused/confundido bunny, proud/ogulloso frog, and tired/cansada chicken also make appearances. A brown-skinned human child with a Troll-like shock of orange hair models shy/timido. There is no pronunciation guide, but the publisher’s YouTube site (referenced on the back cover) includes a bilingual reading.
All in all, a cheerful bilingual introduction to familiar emotions. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-945635-35-9
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Encantos
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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