This sophisticated title will be a boon to adults planning a museum trip with young children.
Learn about the treasures museums hold in this intricately shaped board book.
Each page in this tiny handful of a board book is a dynamic silhouette that mimics the shape of an exhibit inside, ranging from a narrow, rounded sarcophagus page to the square of a glass-windowed diorama. Pages are thick and solid, and all together they look swell, multilayered and three-dimensional, though those unusually shaped edges also lead to quick fraying. Unfortunately, the pages’ thickness limits the length, and with only five double-page spreads, it’s short even by board-book standards. Related in alliterative descriptors, lines such as “discover details in dioramas and dinosaurs” are tongue-twistingly fun to read aloud, but heavy reliance on fairly complex vocabulary (“artifacts,” “architecture”) seems oddly mismatched to a toddler audience. Approachable, vividly colored art features stylized, nonthreatening versions of T. rex, animal dioramas, statuary, masks, and paintings rendered in a bold, graphic style with minimal detail and no shading. Child art patrons have a wide variety of skin hues, and their interactive poses, including one making eye contact with a taxidermied bear (all the art appears to peer back) or another imitating a mummy, make the experience of visiting a fine art museum feel accessible to younger audiences.
This sophisticated title will be a boon to adults planning a museum trip with young children. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7492-1
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
An effervescent celebration of play in the early years.
As with Spanyol’s stellar Clive books, Rosa’s favorite activities buck gender stereotypes.
The toddler races toy cars, jumps monster trucks, and builds a car out of a cardboard box with her buddies in what looks like a day care or preschool setting. Spanyol’s childlike lines, soft palette, and chunky figures are as cheerful as ever. The text is mostly straightforward, simple narration peppered with exclamations from Rosa and her chums: “Rosa and Marcel play in the sandpit. ‘Dig-a-dig, dig-a-dig, scoop!’ sings Rosa.” Rosa has brown skin and black, curly hair, and she wears bright yellow eyeglasses. Her friends include Samira, who uses a wheelchair and is likely of South Asian descent; Mustafa, who appears black; Biba, who has light-brown skin and straight, black hair; and Sarah and Marcel, who both present white. Three other equally charming titles accompany this offering. In Rosa and Her Dinosaurs, the heroine dons a purple dress and plays with a collection of toy dinosaurs. Rosa and her buds (all wearing helmets) roll through the pages of Rosa Rides Her Scooter. And in Rosa Plays Ball, Rosa pushes a cart with various kinds of balls to toss about with her friends outside.
An effervescent celebration of play in the early years. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-78628-125-8
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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A fun but inessential novelty, as much toy as book.
A familiar song repackaged as a board book doubles as a finger puppet.
Many a caregiver has sung this refrain to a newborn or toddler, ignoring the decidedly sad lyrics of the original. Magsamen lays claim and sweetens it up. She uses only the chorus and changes the last line to “I’ll give you lots of hugs… / and kisses every day” instead of the expected “Please don’t take my sunshine away.” Her cheery artwork, reminiscent of applique, recalls the song’s country-music roots and is anything but sad. The pages are decorated with hearts and cuddly-looking caregiver-child animal pairs—foxes, skunks with sunny yellow umbrellas, bunnies, raccoons, and squirrels. The thick, heart-shaped pages include a circular die-cut hole through which readers might poke the smiling felt sun puppet attached to the back cover. A finger inserted from the back makes the sun wiggle and will capture even the youngest baby’s attention. The puppet feature does not obstruct the initial page turns, but when a toddler says, “Do it again” (as they doubtless will), quickly re-positioning the finger puppet is somewhat challenging.
A fun but inessential novelty, as much toy as book. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-30576-0
Page Count: 6
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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