bookshelf

IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT

Name: IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT
Author: Hazel Quintanilla
ISBN: 978-1-4867-2403-1

From the Hazel Q Nursery Rhymes series

illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

A weak adaptation of the popular song.

bookshelf

A bevy of Australian beasts invite little ones who are happy—and know it—to join them in showing it.

Purple koala bears shimmy up trees and offer the opening lines “If you’re happy and you know it, // clap your hands!” Those who have heard this tune before may expect the line to repeat, but the next two spreads instead introduce googly-eyed orange kangaroos in a desert and march right into “If you’re happy and you know it, // stomp your feet!” The illustrations are unpleasantly loud, with pinstripe backgrounds and intense gazes from the animals. What might be baby wombats round out the singing animal crew with “If you’re happy and you know it, // smile BIG and really show it!” before abruptly concluding with “If you’re happy / and you know it, / clap your hands!” Starting the song over again with a reread is an option, but the book on its own feels like one verse instead of a complete tune. It is too short even for the youngest children, who need repetition to learn and mirror motions. It is too souped up in cheer even for a song about happiness. And the color scheme is disjointed, with the wombats shown in a more natural brown and the kangaroos and koalas in more off-the-wall hues. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A weak adaptation of the popular song. (Board book. 0-3)

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-4867-2403-1

Page Count: 14

Publisher: Flowerpot Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
ALPHABEASTS
by Hazel Quintanilla ; illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla

- BOOK REVIEW
ROCK-A-BYE BABY
illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla

- BOOK REVIEW
WALTER THE WHALE SHARK AND HIS TEENY TINY TEETH
by Katrine Crow ; illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla

bookshelf

CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

bookshelf

A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

bookshelf

LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S SPRINGTIME

From the Little Blue Truck series

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 2018

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.

bookshelf

Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.

This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)