High appeal to fans of Cousins but not revolutionary in the field of books about parent-child love.
Mommy Fish and Little Fish swim, play, and explore.
Cousins’ rhyming board book is all about mother-child love. Little Fish describes a day with Mommy Fish spent playing peekaboo, exploring a cave while conquering fears, and sharing kisses. Cousins’ trademark style is on full display with the bright, gouache illustrations and hand-lettered text. The illustrations are simple yet bold and inviting. They work especially well on a spread full of brightly swimming fish, alive with color that appears to create texture. Both Little Fish and Mommy Fish wear the same expressions throughout the story, excepting their kiss at the end, conveying a vague sense of happy awe. While it aligns with the simplicity of the illustrations, it doesn’t quite fit with all of Little Fish’s experiences. Little Fish’s gender is not named, enhancing its accessibility to readers. As narrated, many of Little Fish’s observations read as appropriately childlike, such as “My mommy’s orange, just like me. We both have yellow spots” (a statement that may make this book difficult to share in mixed-race and/or adoptive families). The verse works well, save the last page which bends a grammar rule to push along the rhyme. Overall, the pacing and the rhythm are the right amount of bounce for a little one on a lap.
High appeal to fans of Cousins but not revolutionary in the field of books about parent-child love. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0612-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.
Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2095-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers.
A board-book ode to parental love as old as the dinosaurs.
A line of text on the left of each spread reads like a dinosaur-themed valentine that a third grader might choose, with punishingly punny wordplay that incorporates dinosaur-related words. On the facing page a dinosaur pair—a baby and an adult—gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes against whimsical, pastel-hued prehistoric-ish backgrounds. In smaller print, in all caps, at the bottom of the left page is the scientific name for the dinosaur referenced by the text and picture followed by a helpful phonetic pronunciation guide. White-outlined footprints appear next to their names, though the white is sometimes difficult to see against the pastel pages. Ten of the best-known dinosaurs are included. Twisting the dinosaur names to fit the loving sentiments succeeds some of the time but more often results in tortured text, well beyond the understanding of the board book audience. The line accompanying two hugging velociraptors, for instance, is just confusing: “Wrap-TOR arms around me, / with you I’ll always stay.” Others are just plain clumsy: “I-wanna-GUANODON you kisses, / I truly just adore you.” Very young children, even those fascinated by dinosaurs, will not get it. Older dinosaur fans will be put off by the babyish format.
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2295-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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