Delightful—pounce on it! (Board book. 1-4)
A playful and kinetic assemblage of animals.
As the title implies, this volume celebrates the act of jumping, as demonstrated by nine different types of animals. A simple and elegant whimsy underlies every aspect of the book, beginning with the practical conceit of reorienting the book by 90 degrees. After each animal is introduced (“A frog jumps,” for example), an upward flip of the page reveals a picture of it vaulting skyward. Author Matsuoka has won picture-book, science-book, and children’s-book awards in his native Japan, and it’s easy to see why. The creatures in this book have a cartoonish degree of personality. The big-eyed frog, for example, smiles softly in a lazy squat; in midflight, it has a proportional, fat-bellied, anatomical correctness. The grasshopper is another striking and even startling example, all legs and head in the first picture, then legs, body, and wings fully extended midleap. Apart from lines implying upward movement, there’s a beautiful static quality to these snapshots of motion. Each jump is accompanied by a vibrant “BOING!” (or “Boi-oi-oi-oi-oing!” as the case may be), which makes for read-aloud fun for caregiver and child alike. Snails, readers learn, are predictably poor jumpers. “And I jump, too,” announces the young, Asian-presenting child who executes the final leap, placing humans in context within the animal kingdom.
Delightful—pounce on it! (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77657-231-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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