Like the animals’ knickers, there’s not much to this one-joke offering.
“Animals, animals- everywhere— / from A to Z in their underwear!”
So begins this march through the alphabet with a bevy of animals sporting various undergarments. On each page or under a flap, an alligator wears striped drawers, a bat flies with multicolored undies, a chicken dons pink-and-purple panties and so on, with a colorful block letter and a simple label floating nearby. Many of the usual alphabet-book critters are here, such as Elephant, Frog and Goldfish, but there are a couple of surprises, particularly Nanny goat for N. As the letters get more challenging, things grow progressively sillier, ushering in an extra-large pig in heart-decked briefs, a purple yak in blue, yellow, green and red underwear, and a multicolored zebra with no underwear at all. Parr’s signature cartoons using bold colors, thick black lines and childlike forms will be easily recognizable to his fans. The use of flaps here mainly seems to be a space-saving device to compress multiple letters into a spread, since they do not offer any surprises or changes on the inside, as is typical in other lift-the-flap titles.
Like the animals’ knickers, there’s not much to this one-joke offering. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-20736-2
Page Count: 16
Publisher: LB Kids/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet but not essential book.
A whole host of children presents a whole host of balls in this new installment in the Baby Unplugged series.
There are so many kinds of balls in this little board book. Big ball, shiny ball, game ball, plain ball, spot ball. And not all are necessarily balls. Some are round objects, like the snowball and the clay ball or the blueberry that is a “tiny ball.” Some balls are verb balls, like the “throw ball, / catch ball, / go ball, / fetch ball!” There is even a gotcha! ball that’s “not ball”—it’s a cube! And all these balls are being played with by an equally eclectic group of children. African-American, Asian, brown-skinned, and blond and brunette white children are all represented here in illustrations that are charming and clear but not particularly artful. It feels as though both author and illustrator are trying so hard to include so much that they’ve almost forgotten to have fun. It’s reminiscent of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish but without the spark that turns an OK book into a timeless classic. Best suited for young children who are already quite verbal.
A sweet but not essential book. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-936669-42-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: blue manatee press
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
A fishy tale that doesn't quite swim in the crowded sea of concept books
A mix of marine-life fact and fiction introduces opposites.
With its iconic shape, the eye-catching cover cutout of a bright-orange fish is instantly appealing. Layered die cuts of decreasing size provide texture and handholds for little fingers and form the bodies of varying species of fish. Information about fish habits and habitats is crammed into wordy rhymes with the opposing terms in boldface, but the accuracy of those facts is debatable. Though it’s fair to call the eel “long and very wiggly,” contrasting it with a generic, short yellow fish that’s a rhyme-forced “giggly” introduces a jarring anthropomorphism. In fact, stereotypical human emotions or motivations are attributed to the fish on almost every page. On another page, the slow fish (the only fish not painted with a smile) says, “Even with a big head start, I knew I'd finish last”—a distressingly defeatist message in an otherwise cheery board book. Inexplicably, the final spread depicts all the fish in party hats—turning it into a birthday book. While this may extend its use in day cares, it doesn't help young children learn opposites.
A fishy tale that doesn't quite swim in the crowded sea of concept books . (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58925-215-8
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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