A simple, lovely lullaby.
A mellow bedtime book about baby animals preparing to sleep.
In this charming, sweetly illustrated book, toddlers can “join the goodnight safari” and help the animals get ready for bed. Tap a baby zebra, and he stops frolicking in the tall grass so he can join his mother. The young giraffe needs help reaching the leaves in a tree so she can finish her dinner. Readers can also dunk the speckled rhino to wash off his muddy back and help the brown monkey swing into her “bed” in an adjacent tree. The rich, lush illustrations burst with color, and the fuzzy, socklike texture of many animals adds to their appeal. Each page offers just enough interaction to hold the interest of rambunctious little ones but not so much that they become overstimulated. There’s even an optional background sound-effect loop that functions much like soothing white noise—a plus when the aim is to bring the energy level down a few notches. Once tasks are completed, an arrow appears to navigate to the next page. Touch elements and page turns can be a bit sluggish (it takes repeated taps to submerge the rhino in water, for example), but overall it’s not terribly disappointing—after all, the point is to slow down and chill out.
A simple, lovely lullaby. (iPad storybook app. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Polk Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2012
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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Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
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)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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