Best suited for those eager young readers who thrive on facts.
This latest addition to the American Museum of Natural History’s ABC series is dedicated to birds, from the familiar to the not so familiar.
Twenty-six birds make an appearance in this attractive, oversized board book. Using eye-catching design, a crisp photograph of each bird is digitally placed against a colorful background and its corresponding letter, which often acts as its perch as well. Budding naturalists will love the little factoid accompanying each bird. The information presented uses rich and at times sophisticated language, yet context allows it to be easily comprehended by the target age group. The ABC format is not intended to be a letter-learning exercise but a vehicle to present the birds, and this will probably work best as a browsing book to come back to, over and over, rather than one to read in one sitting and then put down. Children may be familiar with some of the birds, such as a cockatoo, a duck, an eagle, an owl, and a penguin; some others, such as a bee-eater, a grebe, an umbrella bird, a nightjar, and a xenops, might motivate them and their adult readers to go looking for more information.
Best suited for those eager young readers who thrive on facts. (Informational board book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1986-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together.
A clueless duckling tries to make a new friend.
He is confused by this peculiar-looking duck, who has a long tail, doesn’t waddle and likes to be alone. No matter how explicitly the creature denies he is a duck and announces that he is a cat, the duckling refuses to acknowledge the facts. When this creature expresses complete lack of interest in playing puddle stomp, the little ducking goes off and plays on his own. But the cat is not without remorse for rejecting an offered friendship. Of course it all ends happily, with the two new friends enjoying each other’s company. Bramsen employs brief sentences and the simplest of rhymes to tell this slight tale. The two heroes are meticulously drawn with endearing, expressive faces and body language, and their feathers and fur appear textured and touchable. Even the detailed tree bark and grass seem three-dimensional. There are single- and double-page spreads, panels surrounded by white space and circular and oval frames, all in a variety of eye-pleasing juxtapositions. While the initial appeal is solidly visual, young readers will get the gentle message that friendship is not something to take for granted but is to be embraced with open arms—or paws and webbed feet.
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86990-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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