Sheer joy.
This book and its companions explore the joys of performance art, toddler style.
Featuring a multiethnic group of toddlers as well as some toddlers wearing glasses and one who uses a wheelchair, the book celebrates the sheer exhilaration of imagination during toddlerhood. The colorful mixed-media illustrations place the children against a white background, giving them center stage. The accompanying text exudes the same playfulness and vitality as the drawings, begging to be read aloud and always ending with an enthusiastic “I’m amazing!” Performing on all kinds of improvised instruments from pots to bottles filled with rattly things, the children have a blast: “I’ve got a drum, as round as my tum. / BANG! BA-da-BOOM! BA-da-BOOM, Bang…BUM!” In companion title Dance! “Hands go CLAP! / Feet go TAP!” Young readers will be moved to do the same. In Dressing Up! the children explore a box filled with wondrous objects ready to become anything a toddler can imagine, the onomatopoeic text giving clues to their creations. And proving that singing can be done anywhere, in Sing! children sing while swinging, sitting on the potty, or splashing in the bathtub. “Sing loud, out LOUD! / Sing LOUDER! / I’m amazing!” Pair these with Annie Kubler’s Nursery Time board books.
Sheer joy. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-84643-961-2
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
This will have readers putting on their dancing shoes to do the “cha cha cha” with their dino-babies
It's not the first time dinosaurs have been featured in a clever Boynton board book. It seems she—and we—can't get enough.
As her fans know, Boynton has a sly wit that respects the intelligence of her young fans and amuses the adults asked to “read it again.” In this book she introduces nine dinosaurs, each of which dances in a way that seems totally appropriate for that particular species. “The blue Stegosaurus goes SHIMMY SHIMMY SHAKE. / The red Brontosaurus goes QUIVERY QUAKE.” Drawing on her experience as a children’s musician, she writes a text that trips along like a song with rhymes that make sense but don't intrude. The illustrations, typical Boynton, reflect her greeting-card background. They are cartoonish but manage to capture the unique personality of each creature. The unnamed dinosaur narrator looks genuinely distraught at not being able to name the “tiny little dino” that “goes DEEDLY DEE.” Spoiler alert: the tiny little dinosaur is probably Compsognathus and would be about the size of a small chicken. Young dinophiles would be impressed if the dinosaurologists in their lives could supply that factoid, but alas, they will have to look it up.
This will have readers putting on their dancing shoes to do the “cha cha cha” with their dino-babies . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8099-4
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet but not essential book.
A whole host of children presents a whole host of balls in this new installment in the Baby Unplugged series.
There are so many kinds of balls in this little board book. Big ball, shiny ball, game ball, plain ball, spot ball. And not all are necessarily balls. Some are round objects, like the snowball and the clay ball or the blueberry that is a “tiny ball.” Some balls are verb balls, like the “throw ball, / catch ball, / go ball, / fetch ball!” There is even a gotcha! ball that’s “not ball”—it’s a cube! And all these balls are being played with by an equally eclectic group of children. African-American, Asian, brown-skinned, and blond and brunette white children are all represented here in illustrations that are charming and clear but not particularly artful. It feels as though both author and illustrator are trying so hard to include so much that they’ve almost forgotten to have fun. It’s reminiscent of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish but without the spark that turns an OK book into a timeless classic. Best suited for young children who are already quite verbal.
A sweet but not essential book. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-936669-42-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: blue manatee press
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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