Toddlers familiar with the Disney movies or with obliging parents who can help them connect the dots may get something out...
A toddler-sized version of the classic fairy tale.
With one or two words per page, this board book presents the barest bones of the princess’ story. Characters are labeled and plot points shared in brightly colored scenes. While the princess does celebrate a birthday and prick her finger on a spindle, it will seem to most toddler readers that not much happens. She takes a long nap, the prince comes and wakes her up, and everyone at the palace has a party. Three others in the series publish simultaneously and follow a similar format. Rapunzel has also had the scary bits removed, and it looks like the heroine simply gets a haircut and then takes a walk in the woods before meeting her prince. In Beauty and the Beast, the book-loving young girl befriends a purple-horned lion, a fellow bibliophile, who turns into a prince with purple hair. In The Little Mermaid, the mermaid enjoys an adventure with legs on dry land with a friendly prince. The ending is vague here, but it would appear as if the heroine returns home to her family with scales intact. This quartet, which follows the previously published Snow White and Cinderella (2012), features stylized cartoons of characters with oversized heads against brightly colored backgrounds. The cover of each offering includes tactile glitter embellishments.
Toddlers familiar with the Disney movies or with obliging parents who can help them connect the dots may get something out of these summarized versions, but, like Sleeping Beauty’s fairies, the plots are going to fly right over the heads of most board-book readers. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9791-7
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon.
This bedtime book offers simple rhymes, celebrates the numbers one through 10, and encourages the counting of objects.
Each double-page spread shows a different toddler-and-caregiver pair, with careful attention to different skin tones, hair types, genders, and eye shapes. The pastel palette and soft, rounded contours of people and things add to the sleepy litany of the poems, beginning with “Goodnight, one fork. / Goodnight, one spoon. / Goodnight, one bowl. / I’ll see you soon.” With each number comes a different part in a toddler’s evening routine, including dinner, putting away toys, bathtime, and a bedtime story. The white backgrounds of the pages help to emphasize the bold representations of the numbers in both written and numerical forms. Each spread gives multiple opportunities to practice counting to its particular number; for example, the page for “four” includes four bottles of shampoo and four inlaid dots on a stool—beyond the four objects mentioned in the accompanying rhyme. Each home’s décor, and the array and types of toys and accoutrements within, shows a decidedly upscale, Western milieu. This seems compatible with the patronizing author’s note to adults, which accuses “the media” of indoctrinating children with fear of math “in our country.” Regardless, this sweet treatment of numbers and counting may be good prophylaxis against math phobia.
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93378-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name.
A brief rhyming board book for toddlers.
Spurr's earlier board books (In the Garden and At the Beach, both 2012; In the Woods, 2013) featured an adventuresome little boy. Her new slice-of-life story stars an equally joyful little girl who takes pleasure in flying a new kite while not venturing far off the walkway. Oliphant's expressive and light-filled watercolors clearly depict the child's emotions—eager excitement on the way to the park, delight at the kite's flight in the wind, shock when the kite breaks free, dejection, and finally relief and amazement. The rhymes work, though uneven syllable counts in some stanzas interrupt the smooth flow of the verse. The illustrations depict the child with her mass of windblown curls, brown skin, and pronounced facial features as African-American. Her guardian (presumably her mother) is also brown-skinned. It is refreshing to see an African-American family settled comfortably in a suburban setting with single-family homes and a park where the family dog does not need to be leashed.
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56145-854-7
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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