The frolicking diversion validates a child’s imaginative ability in an engaging bedtime scenario.
Three-year-old Gabriel encourages various family members to playact monsters in a cavorting game of chase around the house.
Eager to participate, older sib Josie becomes “green and scary, / with sharp, pointy teeth / and feet that are hairy.” Uncle Rufus sprouts imaginary “horns like a cow / and a tail like a pig.” The family pet, Kitty Cat, has “long sharp claws, / all scritchy and scratchy,” and Nonna becomes a “bright-pink jelly / with big round eyes / and feet that are smelly.” While the monsters chase the child, Gabriel easily escapes, chortling “Hee, hee, hee! / But you can’t catch me!” in a continual refrain that kids will easily repeat. The rhyming text is as much fun to recite as the game of chase is to watch. The story unfolds with comforting predictability, Gabriel inviting play on one double-page spread and on the next gleefully running away from the humorously transformed family member. Cousins’ signature, childlike black-outlined drawings in bold primary colors enhance the romp all the way to the last dinosaurlike monster, Mommy, who has spikes on her back and gobbles little boys up. Just as the day is ending, Gabriel is caught and, not surprisingly, becomes his own monster “with a funny green head, / who is tired and sleepy / and ready for bed.” Gabriel, Uncle Rufus, Nonna, and Mommy all present white; Josie is a child of color.
The frolicking diversion validates a child’s imaginative ability in an engaging bedtime scenario. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1060-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Sweet.
A caregiving bear shares with its cub how love has defined their relationship from the first moment and through the years as the cub has grown.
With rhymes and a steady rhythm that are less singsong-y than similar books, Stansbie seems to have hit a sweet spot for this offering on the I-love-you-always shelf. Readers follow the adult and child as they share special moments together—a sunset, a splash in a pond, climbing a tree, a snuggle—and the adult tells the child that the love it feels has only grown. Stansbie also takes care not to put promises in the adult bear’s mouth that can’t be delivered, acknowledging that physical proximity is not always possible: “Wherever you are, / even when we’re apart… // I’ll love you forever / with all of my heart.” The large trim size helps the sweet illustrations shine; their emphasis is on the close relationship between parent and child. Shaped peekaboo windows offer glimpses of preceding and succeeding pages, images and text carefully placed to work whatever the context. While the die cuts on the interior pages will not hold up to rough handling, they do add whimsy and delight to the book as a whole: “And now that you’re bigger, / you make my heart sing. / My / beautiful / wonderful / magical / thing.” Those last three adjectives are positioned in leaf-shaped cutouts, the turn of the page revealing the roly-poly cub in a pile of leaves, three formed by the die-cuts. Opposite, three vignettes show the cub appreciating the “beautiful,” the “wonderful,” and the “magical.”
Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68412-910-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Dolphin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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