adapted by Jan Thornhill & illustrated by Jan Thornhill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2012
Leave the song to Marianne Berkes, the seek-and-find to Joan Steiner and the team of Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo.
The traditional song gets an unsuccessful seek-and-find makeover.
As in the original, children count from one to 10, following the animals in a streamside meadow habitat as they teach their babies a few needed skills. With only one glaring exception, the rhythms and rhymes fit the original tune, but readers won’t sing it through, anyway. They will be too busy scanning the spreads for the familiar objects that make up both the animals and their surroundings—green plastic combs stand in for grass, pretzels form the beaver lodge’s sticks and leaves become the owls’ feathers. Unlike other books that use this method, however, the objects are digitally resized, taking away their size context and making them difficult to recognize, especially in comparison to one another. Further complicating matters is the fact that some of the objects have had parts cut off or their color changed. Overall, the artwork comes off as being overly digitized, a jarring contrast to the nature theme of the song. For pre-readers, a few rebus elements are included in each verse, but as they focus mainly on the featured animal, they seem extraneous. A visual listing of many of the everyday objects used in the scenes offer readers the chance to go back through the illustrations and find them.
Leave the song to Marianne Berkes, the seek-and-find to Joan Steiner and the team of Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-926973-06-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2019
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
by Michael Whaite ; illustrated by Michael Whaite ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2019
Count on construction die-hards falling in love, but discerning readers would be wise to look elsewhere for their...
Less ambitious than Chris Gall’s widely known Dinotrux (2009) and sequels, this British import systematically relegates each dinosaur/construction-equipment hybrid to its most logical job.
The title figures are introduced as bigger than both diggers and dinosaurs, and rhyming text and two construction-helmeted kids show just what these creatures are capable of. Each diggersaur has a specific job to do and a distinct sound effect. The dozersaurus moves rocks with a “SCRAAAAPE!!!” while the rollersaurus flattens lumps with a cheery “TOOT TOOT!!” Each diggersaur is numbered, with 12 in all, allowing this to be a counting book on the sly. As the diggersaurs (not all of which dig) perform jobs that regular construction equipment can do, albeit on a larger scale, there is no particular reason why any of them should have dinosaurlike looks other than just ’cause. Peppy computer art tries valiantly to attract attention away from the singularly unoriginal text. “Diggersaurs dig with bites so BIG, / each SCOOP creates a crater. // They’re TOUGH and STRONG / with necks so long— / they’re super EXCAVATORS!” Far more interesting are the two human characters, a white girl and a black boy, that flit about the pictures offering commentary and action. Much of the fun of the book can be found in trying to spot them on every two-page spread.
Count on construction die-hards falling in love, but discerning readers would be wise to look elsewhere for their dino/construction kicks. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-4779-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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