Where is Little Fish? He should be on shelves serving young children everywhere.
Little Fish plays hide-and-seek.
A board book should be brief to match a toddler’s attention span, have humor that a young child can appreciate, and provide reasons for caregiver and child to linger over each page. Cousins, best known for the popular Maisy stories, scores on all counts here. On the first page, the smiling Little Fish speaks directly to readers with an invitation to play the familiar game of hide-and-seek. Six possible hiding places are concealed beneath flaps on the subsequent pages. By the second reading, young children will chime in with a satisfying “No” as each flap reveals a different sea creature. Finally, as in Cousins’ earlier Hooray for Fish (2005), the final flap lifts to reveal Little Fish and Mom Fish sharing kisses. The six page turns and six flaps are just enough to ensure that board-book readers will say “read it again.” The creatures have monikers such as “shelly fish” and “stripy fish,” but even though these names are invented, their hiding places hint at real habitats and actual fish behavior. Each flap includes a small cutout to make it clear where it should be opened. This feature may help the rather thin flaps survive frequent tugs from eager little fingers.
Where is Little Fish? He should be on shelves serving young children everywhere. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9486-9
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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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