Cat lovers will adore this beguiling board book.
Meow! Meet and count a dozen charismatic kitties.
A captivating selection of frolicking felines participate in familiar, kitty-centric activities, such as napping, snuggling, and snacking. Each double-page spread adds another kitty until No. 12, a tiny cream-colored kitten, closes the party—because he “knows that cats come better by the dozen!” Though the rhyming text is easy enough to read aloud, some stanzas feel safe and a bit stale: “Cat Number Six feels like she’s in heaven / when she’s snuggled up with Cat Number Seven.” However, beautiful illustrations, rendered via sumi ink on watercolors, elevate the verses. Each cat—from a fluffy ginger tabby to a slinky Sphynx—is imbued with a unique look and personality. Cats tugging on toys, using stairs as a playground, or grooming each other brim with charm, and going from Cat No. 1 to a cramped cavalcade of 12 of them easily demonstrates number progression. Although Newman took few risks in the text of this book, she goes the opposite direction in ABC Cats, giving readers delightful, vocabulary-rich lines that beg to be read with panache: “Elegant cat with dignified pose / Finicky cat turns up her nose.” An oversized letter is paired with a demonstrative cat (S, for instance, introduces a wary, eyes-wide “scaredy-cat”), and all 26 entries in the cattery are purr-fectly entrancing.
Cat lovers will adore this beguiling board book. (Board book. 1-6)Pub Date: April 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0995-2
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
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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