A colorful introduction to the sea, with fun flaps sturdy enough to survive the repeated use it will surely see.
Little Fish introduces toddlers to fishy friends and the secrets of the sea.
Using her signature saturated color illustrations and short verses with simple rhymes, Cousins takes the youngest listeners on an enticing tour of various ocean locations. Little Fish is easy to spot, with a bright orange body, yellow spots, and green stripes. The tour begins at the “rock pools / by the sandy shore.” Lift the sturdy, almost full-page flap to find shells, seaweed, and crabs. Swim deeper with Little Fish, and thread through the kelp beds with a turtle, a dolphin, and a stingray. Finally, dive deep in waters “where it’s dark / as night” to find a squid and an eel as well as an anglerfish; a strategic flap lift emphasizes the anglerfish’s surprising ability to radiate light from the lanternlike appendage on its head. If you can brave the cold, it’s on to the Antarctic to find penguins, a seal, a narwhal, and a comparatively giant blue whale that, with the help of a flap, stretches more than two pages long. The illustrations’ colors and the waters warm up as the tour ends at Little Fish’s home, a coral reef, where Little Fish introduces Mommy Fish and prepares to snuggle up for a well-deserved rest.
A colorful introduction to the sea, with fun flaps sturdy enough to survive the repeated use it will surely see. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1685-1
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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