Not an essential purchase, but this playful romp from one to 10 with a whale, lions, blue bears, pink elephants, crocodiles,...
Rhyming text and cartoony creatures careen across the sturdy pages of this board book.
A numeral placed on one of the corners of each two-page display accompanies a rhyming couplet that identifies the animal pictured and some detail of its habitat or behavior. Of course, none of these animals or the environments they are shown in look like anything in nature, but young children won't have any trouble recognizing them. The iconic images clearly communicate each critter’s essential features. The rhymes trip nicely off the tongue, too. “In the forest, three bears scurry. / Why are they in such a hurry?” (However, shared spelling doesn't make “one” rhyme with “gone.”) In each verse the number is spelled out and enlarged to stand out prominently, as are most of the ending rhymes. Other words, mostly verbs, are also printed larger—perhaps to encourage adult readers to emphasize the action. The final spread mixes up all the animals, one whale through 10 monkeys.
Not an essential purchase, but this playful romp from one to 10 with a whale, lions, blue bears, pink elephants, crocodiles, pandas, foxes, penguins, parrots, and monkeys keeps the learning light. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6937-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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
Guess how much you’ll be reading this.
Parent and child share a day of small adventures and cozy snuggles.
That the two happen to be tortoises is totally beside the point. Die-cut holes and shaped edges turn nearly every page flip into a surprise. Following a parental “Good morning, Baby” to greet the youngling’s “Wake up, wake up, I want to play… / The sun is up, it’s a brand new day!” the two reptiles ramble off to munch on leaves, weather a sudden rain shower, discover a flock of butterflies, climb a hill, watch the moon rise, and, at last, weary little one perched on top, settle down to snooze again. The paper engineering is ingenious. Turning a seemingly arbitrarily shaped page with a special window framing a pink butterfly fills the spread with many jewel-toned insects; even though the tortoises never change position, the scene is completely transformed. Hegarty’s rhymed narrative features lots of tender sentiments—“Wherever you are, wherever you go, / Baby, I’ll always love you so”—while steering clear of any gender references. In Elliott’s peaceful, grassy settings the wanderers’ small smiles and shared glances likewise create a sense of loving intimacy. This is likely to become a victim of its own appeal, being as the paper stock is rather too flimsy to survive much contact with toddler hands. Still, a clear winner for sharing with audiences of one or dozens.
Guess how much you’ll be reading this. (Novelty. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3509-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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