Cheery and affirming.
A book to read—and sing—about making and then moving past mistakes.
Children’s musician Kubart offers advice akin to that found in the Sesame Street song “Everyone Makes Mistakes So Why Can’t You?” in this, his first picture-book text. Richmond’s bright and cheery multimedia illustrations interpret the text to follow a child through one day at home and school. Minor mishaps (or “oopsies”) punctuate the comings and goings, but the diverse cast around the child (who has brown skin and straight, dark hair) embodies the text’s encouraging tone in illustrations that depict their shows of support. “Oopsies can happen and get in your way, / but that doesn’t mean they should ruin your day,” reads the opening spread as the child arrives at school with parent and baby sibling. From there, the child spills fish food on the floor, among other mistakes, and after each incident, the text repeats the titular refrain, along with an accompanying picture showing the mishap resolved. The child’s roll-with-the-punches attitude, in turn, allows easy accommodation of muddy paw prints tracked through the house and spaghetti tossed by the baby all over a beloved teddy bear. A link to the song on the publisher’s website is promoted on the cover.
Cheery and affirming. (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-257303-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Fans of Baby Loves to Rock will get a kick out of this infant’s moves, but the humor is still too adult to pretend this is a...
A baby and a bevy of animals demonstrate a variety of dance moves.
With one sentence per page, the text is a mix of puns, jokes and rhymes that, while clever, will likely go over the heads of core board-book readers: “The apes like to orang-o-tango / and the sloths like to slow dance. // The kangaroos can boogaloo, / and the flamingo can flamenco.” Each critter mentioned is depicted in bright colors dancing in their requisite style against bold backgrounds. The goofy cartoons are not as successful as those in Kirwan’s earlier offering, Baby Loves to Rock (2013), but the tap-dancing woodpecker and the toucan doing the cancan are delightful standouts. As in the first title, a double-page spread appears at three different junctures, asking a variation of “But who loves to boogie?” in a graphic, bold display type floating in a disco setting. On the last two pages, readers learn that “Baby loves to boogie, woogie, / BOOGIE!” and three images of a Caucasian baby, likely the same child in as the companion title, bop across the page.
Fans of Baby Loves to Rock will get a kick out of this infant’s moves, but the humor is still too adult to pretend this is a book for actual babies. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: June 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0383-2
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
A young wizard helps cure Dudley the dragon’s hiccups.
He does so after the royal family and their servants call on him to help solve the hiccup-induced wafts of smoke that keep appearing throughout the castle. Magician Max concocts a potion that quickly cures Dudley, to everyone’s delight. On each page, there is a die-cut hole shaped like arched windows or an opening to a cellar. When the page is turned, the image framed by the hole appears on the next double-page spread. These features appear to be only an attention-getting gimmick and do little to illuminate the slight story. While there are some clever images in the jewel-toned, detailed cartoon art (a spider wearing a gas mask or eyes and frog legs in Max’s potion pot), the antics and medieval imagery are going to go over the heads of typical board-book readers. The interactive feature on the cover—a pull-tab at the top of the book that opens and closes the castle doors to reveal the hero Max—will probably interest youngsters the most. The companion title, A Ballet to Remember (978-0-7641-6645-7), employs this pull-tab feature to better effect, as it opens and closes a stage curtain. Here, the story focuses on an upcoming ballet recital. A puppy belonging to one of the dancers wreaks havoc with the costumes, and the performers have to set things right before the big show. Again, the youngest readers are not going to get much out of the tale, which also utilizes the die-cut holes in the pages. Neither magical nor memorable for typical board-book readers. (Board book. 3-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7641-6647-1
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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