No need for a life jacket; all these vessels glide smoothly into port.
When you sail away on these seas, the vessel can be any you choose.
A question-and-answer text combines with the fold-out design to introduce children to maritime terminology. Clean, primary colors catch the eye, and the text is printed entirely in capital letters. The direct, first-person narrative allows the boats to brag about their particular attributes. “What am I? / I have a heavy anchor. / I have portholes. / I'm an ocean liner.” The vocabulary is appropriately accurate (though land-bound toddlers will be unlikely to correctly name the vessels from the clues); “buoy,” “mast” and “oar” are all represented. The fold-out design works well with the construction of the text, each one-panel clue unfolding first up and then over into an impressive spread, though the dramatic pictures will bend quickly (and likely rip) after repeat readings. Lines and silhouettes are clean and high-contrast, lending the book a Modernist energy.
No need for a life jacket; all these vessels glide smoothly into port. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 29, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60905-215-7
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Blue Apple
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Stick with Dig In!, which young readers will enjoy sinking their teeth into.
Mice, with construction-worker garb and gear, build and enjoy a full-size pizza.
Fluid and often clever verse narrates the action: “Crew arrives at break of day. Get to work, right away! / Put on those construction hats. Roll that mountain nice and flat.” (The mountain here is a mound of pizza dough.) Each double-page spread, except for the first, features movable parts, allowing readers to manipulate the machinery. A spin dial turns the roller of the steamroller or the barrel of a cement mixer (from which issues tomato sauce). Each sliding panel has a hole or indentation for little fingers’ ease of use and moves a loader, makes the ’dozer spread cheese, tows the pizza from the oven and removes a slice from the pie. The interactive components, while relatively easy to manipulate, are constructed of thinner-than-normal board-book page stock and may not hold up under really enthusiastic reading. In gray, orange and yellow hues and drawn in her flat, graphic cartoon-style, Berg’s friendly mice and clear depictions of vehicles are pleasing and recognizable. Little ones may not totally get the mashup of construction and pizza making, but there are enough details here to hold the interest of most truck lovers. The less successful sister title, Dive In!, follows a similar format, but here the mouse workers fill a bathtub and launch toy boats. Unfortunately, the interactive features are less satisfying and more baffling (will toddlers understand what a bath thermometer is?).
Stick with Dig In!, which young readers will enjoy sinking their teeth into. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0522-9
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
While not as strong as the first two titles in the series (1 2 3 Beep Beep Beep!: A Counting Book and Stop! Go! A Book of...
A catalog of colorful vehicles.
A young girl gets into a yellow taxi and loses her bright red balloon. The balloon floats through the double-page spreads that follow and encounters a green van, a blue bus (in which readers see the young lady in pursuit), a purple sailboat, a white airplane and more. When the balloon encounters a black sports car, it appears to mischievously steal the hat of a passenger. In the end, the balloon floats over a circus to meet a rainbow train, flies past a clown on a unicycle (which is the book’s only wordless spread) and returns back to its original owner, who is now riding in a multicolored hot air balloon of her own. Biggs’ bright and brash cartoons, employing thick black lines, are as droll and lighthearted as ever against subtle cityscape backdrops. The vehicles and their colors are easy to identify (although the orange helicopter is a little too yellow) and are labeled in a bold type with the color written in the featured hue.
While not as strong as the first two titles in the series (1 2 3 Beep Beep Beep!: A Counting Book and Stop! Go! A Book of Opposites, both 2013), Biggs’ playful vehicles keep this one chugging along. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-195814-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
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