Around the neighborhood or on a road trip, pre-reading passengers will be ready to understand the signs along the way.
Thirty-five road signs explained to toddlers in an extra-thick board book.
Those ubiquitous universal symbols that decorate our streets and highways can be a mystery to kids buckled into their car seats. Explanations written in simple, direct language aim to demystify them. On the inside front cover and its recto page, a four-sentence introduction explains that signs “are a code to let drivers know how to stay safe.” Bright orange text with key words printed in white stands out against the black background. The signs are organized into five increasingly specialized categories: “Everyday,” “Neighborhood,” “Highway,” “Caution,” and “Nature.” All but eight signs are wordless symbols. A full spread is devoted to each one, with the sign on the right and a brief description in a clean black type on a gray page to the left. To adult ears these definitions seem obvious and even redundant, but explanations like “Yield / Let other cars go first!” are admirably successful at translating abstract concepts into concrete terms. Pages cut in the shapes of the signs both add playful variety and ensure small fingers can turn the thick pages. Clean graphics keep the focus on the signs. The final spread offers thumbnail drawings of all the signs by category.
Around the neighborhood or on a road trip, pre-reading passengers will be ready to understand the signs along the way. (Board book. 1-5)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-22432-8
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A disappointing twist on a popular theme. More gimmick than engaging.
This noisy board book is designed to thrill tots fascinated with all things construction.
A tactile backhoe digger is center stage on each of the five cutout pages, complete with flaps. Brief rhyming text describes the machine’s actions as it works throughout the day. Animal characters engaged in manual labor or operating other machinery—a bulldozer, crane, road roller, and dump truck—describe more work that goes on at a construction site in small speech bubbles. Finding the mouse in every scene adds to the fun. On each page, a little bird sporting a hard hat invites young builders to press various parts of the silicone digger to activate a range of distinct sounds. The digger’s track pad sounds different from the sound of its arm moving dirt. The problem is that the digger itself is passive; the track pad and arm don’t actually move. The machine stays in the same place on every spread. The caution light beeps but doesn’t light up. Savvy kids will quickly realize that all the sounds are accessible from the first spread without having to turn the pages. The sound is the most engaging part of the book, but with only five sounds, this feature won’t hold most youngsters’ attention for long.
A disappointing twist on a popular theme. More gimmick than engaging. (Novelty board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68010-684-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
For preschool motor-vehicle fanciers everywhere.
Everything’s under control in this primer on emergency vehicles.
This brief but engaging board book, published with three other entries in Cocoretto’s Wheels at Work series, acquaints toddlers with the names and uses of some of the biggest, loudest, and most brightly lit vehicles on the road. Each turn of the page opens to a spread-filling depiction of an emergency vehicle. Phrases such as “Let’s hurry to…” enlist the participation of young readers to fold open the right-hand page in order to reveal the rest of the sentence (“…the hospital!”) and an illustration of the truck in action. Here, the vehicle is an ambulance; the flap opens to reveal an EMT wheeling a patient from the back of the vehicle. A “police truck,” a “fire truck,” a “tow truck,” and a “four-wheel drive” follow. The drawings are appropriately simple and unadorned, favoring ease of recognition over artistry and design. Scenes include characters of both genders and many ethnicities and skin hues in key roles: black male and white female police officers, Asian male and white female firefighters, a white male ambulance driver, an Asian female EMT with a brown-skinned patient, a black woman tow-truck driver, and others. The ambulance features both a red cross and the red crescent seen in many Muslim countries. City, Construction, and Farm publish simultaneously.
For preschool motor-vehicle fanciers everywhere. (Board book. 1-5)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-7862-8080-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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