The element of surprise and lots of opportunities for listeners to chime in will make this a great one for read-alouds.
Little ones explore the food chain and make size comparisons in this tongue-in-cheek book.
Graphically bold, textured cut-paper illustrations in highly saturated colors are a big draw here. The book opens with a giant green frog on the verso, its eyes swiveled to peer at the little purple mosquito on the edge of the recto: “There was a BIG BIG FROG! And a little little mosquito.” The typeface plays a big part in the tale: “BIG! Little. / BIG! Little” is the only text on the following double-page spread. And another page turn reveals “Bye Bye Mosquito!” Wings stick out of the frog’s mouth, a tone-on-tone outline of the mosquito on its belly. But then, what’s this? All of a sudden the frog is the little animal, a snake the big one. The process repeats through a bird, a tiger, and to a man, who throws a net over the tiger. But then the littlest animal returns to show how mighty it is, and the final illustration shows all the animals tumbling forth as in “The Little Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly.” Harvill’s pictures are never grotesque or gory, so this is a rather gentle introduction to the way of the wild, though the animals’ eyes can sometimes look manic, and the cover is a bit hard to parse visually.
The element of surprise and lots of opportunities for listeners to chime in will make this a great one for read-alouds. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-945268-03-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Plum Street Publishers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together.
A clueless duckling tries to make a new friend.
He is confused by this peculiar-looking duck, who has a long tail, doesn’t waddle and likes to be alone. No matter how explicitly the creature denies he is a duck and announces that he is a cat, the duckling refuses to acknowledge the facts. When this creature expresses complete lack of interest in playing puddle stomp, the little ducking goes off and plays on his own. But the cat is not without remorse for rejecting an offered friendship. Of course it all ends happily, with the two new friends enjoying each other’s company. Bramsen employs brief sentences and the simplest of rhymes to tell this slight tale. The two heroes are meticulously drawn with endearing, expressive faces and body language, and their feathers and fur appear textured and touchable. Even the detailed tree bark and grass seem three-dimensional. There are single- and double-page spreads, panels surrounded by white space and circular and oval frames, all in a variety of eye-pleasing juxtapositions. While the initial appeal is solidly visual, young readers will get the gentle message that friendship is not something to take for granted but is to be embraced with open arms—or paws and webbed feet.
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86990-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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