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
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on...
An exploration of the human body through colorful photos.
Every other double-page spread labels the individual parts on one major area: head, torso, back, arm and leg. Ethnically diverse boy-girl pairs serve as models as arrows point to specific features and captions float nearby. While the book usefully mentions rarely depicted body parts, such as eyebrow, armpit and shin, some of the directional arrows are unclear. The arrow pointing at a girl’s shoulder hits her in the upper arm, and the belly button is hard is distinguish from the stomach (both are concealed by shirts). Facts about the human body (“Guess what? You have tiny hairs in your nose that keep out dirt”) appear on alternating spreads along with photos of kids in action. Baby Animals, another title in the Look & Learn series, uses an identical format to introduce readers to seal pups, leopard cubs, elephant calves, ducklings and tadpoles. In both titles, the final spread offers a review of the information and encourages readers to match baby animals to their parents or find body parts on a photo of kids jumping on a trampoline.
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on the right track despite earlier titles that were much too conceptual for the audience. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4263-1483-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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