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GIANT PARSNIP SOUP

Savory fun for everyone. Kids will lap this right up.

Veggie soup—giant yum!

Two friends and their dog find a huge parsnip. It’s truly enormous—so big that the imaginative pair, joined by another pal, envision themselves making a car, a slide, or a rocket out of it. Finally, the children decide to whip up “giant parsnip soup.” But they’ll need to gather ingredients, which they name in ascending numerical order—“one giant parsnip, two sacks of potatoes, three crates of carrots, four bags of beets, [and] five pails of water”—all ingeniously collected. Two kids sail a paper boat to retrieve the carrots, while the beets are transported via hot air balloon. What else do they require? “Six busy hands, seven more minutes” (while the soup cooks), and “eight red soup bowls.” As the kids work, they’re joined by an ever-expanding group of diverse friends. It all ends with “ten full bellies.” Over the course of the story, readers will practice their counting skills (a large boldface numeral appears on the lower-left-hand corner of each spread), learn vegetable names and colors, and observe young people working toward a common goal in the spirit of cooperation. Zinging with energy, Sosa’s multimedia collage illustrations are as joyfully chaotic as a child’s drawing. Readers will practically smell the delicious aromas wafting from the big red pot. Two pièces de résistance at book’s end: a counting chart and a recipe for parsnip soup.

Savory fun for everyone. Kids will lap this right up. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: May 13, 2025

ISBN: 9781665961967

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025

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PEANUT BUTTER & CUPCAKE

Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school...

The familiar theme of the challenges facing a new kid in town is given an original treatment by photographer Border in this book of photos of three-dimensional objects in a simple modeled landscape.

Peanut Butter is represented by a slice of white bread spread with the popular condiment. The other characters in the story—a hamburger with a pair of hot dogs in tow, a bowl of alphabet soup, a meatball jumping a rope of spaghetti, a carton of French fries and a pink cupcake—are represented by skillfully crafted models of these foods, anthropomorphized using simple wire construction. Rejected by each character in turn in his search for playmates, Peanut Butter discovers in the end that Jelly is his true match (not Cupcake, as the title suggests), perhaps because she is the only one who looks like him, being a slice of white bread spread with jelly. The friendly foods end up happily playing soccer together. Some parents may have trouble with the unabashedly happy depiction of carbs and American junk food (no carrots or celery sticks in this landscape), and others may find themselves troubled by the implication that friendship across difference is impossible.

Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school experiences. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: July 29, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-399-16773-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014

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YOUR BABY'S FIRST WORD WILL BE DADA

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.

A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.

A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: June 9, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015

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