Readers will want to revisit this visually and textually lively, tactile story over and over again. (Board book. 1-3)
Find Fuzzy Penguin on every page of this delightfully teeming book.
Fuzzy Penguin lives in Antarctica with her penguin friends, penguin family, and a small host of other fascinating creatures, such as whales and seals. Follow Fuzzy through her adventures playing with her friends, waiting for eggs to hatch, swimming in the cold ocean, and, finally, falling asleep at night. If readers want to know what Fuzzy is specifically doing in each panorama, though, they will have to search carefully by either feeling the page until they find her velvety, textured body or scanning for her three-feather topknot. On each spread of this board book, rhyming text tells a short, pithy story about what Fuzzy is doing with her penguin friends and family. The cartoon drawings are filled with action and detail, lending themselves to additional scrutiny and storytelling. Readers will enjoy running their hands across the pages until they feel Fuzzy’s soft body—and, for those with more-advanced reading comprehension, using the clues in the text to locate Fuzzy’s exact spot on the page. The use of repeated onomatopoeia such as “Crack, crack, crack! Scratch, scratch, scratch!” is not only a lot of fun to read aloud, but also an invitation for children to quickly memorize the text and “read” along.
Readers will want to revisit this visually and textually lively, tactile story over and over again. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-53802-1
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead.
An Easter-themed board-book parody of the traditional nursery rhyme.
Unfortunately, this effort is just as sugary and uninspired as The Itsy Bitsy Snowman, offered by the same pair in 2015. A cheerful white bunny hops through a pastel world to distribute candy and treats for Easter but spills his baskets. A hedgehog, fox, mouse, and various birds come to the bunny’s rescue, retrieving the candy, helping to devise a distribution plan, and hiding the eggs. Then magically, they all fly off in a hot air balloon as the little animals in the village emerge to find the treats. Without any apparent purpose, the type changes color to highlight some words. For very young children every word is new, so highlighting “tiny tail” or “friends” makes no sense. Although the text is meant to be sung, the words don't quite fit the rhythm of the original song. Moreover, there are not clear motions to accompany the text; without the fingerplay movements, this book has none of the satisfying verve of the traditional version.
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5621-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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