Despite the flaws, these colorful and shapely vehicles will appeal to the target audience.
Shaped die-cut holes adorn a wide range of vehicles.
The basic forms—square, circle and triangle—are represented here, along with the more rare diamond, oval and heart. The featured shape on each page is a key element on one vehicle, like the triangular sail of a sailboat or the circular wheel of a tractor. Each vehicle gets its own page and is accompanied by a simple caption. Some of the shape and vehicle pairings are clever, such as the octagon doubling as the body of the cement mixer, but a few feel a little forced—in particular, the star as the front of the motorcycle, a visually baffling composition. The left-hand page of each double-page spread asks the reader a direct question (“Do you see a rectangle?”). Floating alongside the text is a small image of the shape, but the die-cut hole always appears on the facing page. Urban often uses several shapes to create the vehicles, and the die-cut holes are layered together, so more than one shape is visible. This makes this “shape-and-seek” game a bit more challenging than many. Bold, solid backgrounds offer a clean, graphic look, but several scenes look a little sparse, since the die-cut holes force the hand of the artist in terms of placement and layout.
Despite the flaws, these colorful and shapely vehicles will appeal to the target audience. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: June 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-46179-5
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 15, 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
BOOK REVIEW
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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