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
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
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead.
An Easter-themed board-book parody of the traditional nursery rhyme.
Unfortunately, this effort is just as sugary and uninspired as The Itsy Bitsy Snowman, offered by the same pair in 2015. A cheerful white bunny hops through a pastel world to distribute candy and treats for Easter but spills his baskets. A hedgehog, fox, mouse, and various birds come to the bunny’s rescue, retrieving the candy, helping to devise a distribution plan, and hiding the eggs. Then magically, they all fly off in a hot air balloon as the little animals in the village emerge to find the treats. Without any apparent purpose, the type changes color to highlight some words. For very young children every word is new, so highlighting “tiny tail” or “friends” makes no sense. Although the text is meant to be sung, the words don't quite fit the rhythm of the original song. Moreover, there are not clear motions to accompany the text; without the fingerplay movements, this book has none of the satisfying verve of the traditional version.
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5621-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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