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LOVE YOU, HUG YOU, READ TO YOU

Name: LOVE YOU, HUG YOU, READ TO YOU
Author: Tish Rabe
ISBN: 978-0-615-99697-4

by Tish Rabe illustrated by Frank Endersby ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A board book both babies and parents will enjoy, though it’s not quite original enough to be memorable.

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This sweet, simple board book promises the tiniest audiences constant, enduring love.

Reading with kids, especially babies and toddlers, is about more than just vocabulary building and storytelling. It’s also a way to build physical and emotional bonds. Bedtime books establish a routine, ease the transition to sleep and ensure the little ones get what they crave: a cuddle and the sound of their parent’s or caregiver’s voice. “There are three things I’ll always do,” Rabe (Huff and Puff and the New Train (My First I Can Read), 2014, etc.) promises these little ones: “love you, hug you, read to you!” Parents and babies from all parts of the animal kingdom—horses, monkeys, polar bears, ducks and more—all cozy up and read together in their natural habitats. Rabe’s words are simple, and her clear if not particularly imaginative rhythm and rhymes are laced with the repetition the tiniest audiences love. The result is as gentle as a lullaby, though not an original one: “I’ll read to you when bright leaves fall. / We’ll pick some books and read them all. / I’ll read to you when soft winds blow… / in summer sun… / and winter snow.” As any board-book reader knows, they’re often forgettable and over in a flash. To extend the reading experience, engage toddlers’ attention and encourage two-way conversation, each page here has three questions, e.g., “What is Mama Cat doing?” and “Where is Baby Polar Bear sitting?” Some of the questions have straightforward answers, while others are cleverly positioned to spark discussion: “Why is Mama Duck reading to her ducklings? What is their book about?” Endersby’s illustrations have a classic, familiar style, with a soft color palette in mostly pastels. While he establishes each animal in its own natural setting (a den, an ice floe, etc.), he misses the opportunity to enrich the conversation with more details and clever touches.

A board book both babies and parents will enjoy, though it’s not quite original enough to be memorable.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-0-615-99697-4

Page Count: -

Publisher: Tish Rabe Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

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The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83271-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE DEAF MUSICIANS
by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

- BOOK REVIEW
SOME FRIENDS TO FEED
by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays

- BOOK REVIEW
TURN! TURN! TURN!
adapted by Pete Seeger & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin

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CORALINE

by Neil Gaiman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...

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A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.

Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)