This is a book with much to offer to children, from tiny babies who will laugh at the funny birds through preschoolers who...
A clever cast of avian characters conveys the meaning of several directional terms in this innovative lift-the-flap book that will appeal to babies and toddlers as well as children just beginning to read.
Long’s captivating illustrations use thick, black outlines and cartoon-style birds in bright shades of purple, green and orange. The book is divided into three short episodes that illustrate the concepts of tall/small, high/low and up/down. Each episode features three or more birds, with just a few words of dialogue in speech balloons using the simplest vocabulary. The bird groups each tell a tiny but complete story illustrating their concept, with birds flying up or floating up with balloons and, of course, coming back down again in various ways. A three-quarter-sized gatefold flap at the end of each episode lifts up to extend the story in some humorous way related to the tall/high/up concepts, with several unexpected twists and funny effects. Though the volume has a regular hard cover and medium trim size, the pages are printed on sturdy coated paper to facilitate the handling of the flap pages.
This is a book with much to offer to children, from tiny babies who will laugh at the funny birds through preschoolers who will get the clever jokes to 5- and 6-year-olds who might find this a very first read-alone. (Picture book/early reader. 1-6)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-25611-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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