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THE DEEP, DEEP PUDDLE

Name: THE DEEP, DEEP PUDDLE
Author: Mary Jessie Parker
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3765-5

by Mary Jessie Parker ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2013

Kids will be happy to dive right in, whether it’s shared in a lap or as part of a group.

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Looking for a counting book that makes a splash?

When an impossibly deep puddle forms in the middle of a busy city street, a shaggy dog falls in and sinks to its mysterious depths. Then two stray cats wander too close and fall in too. Three squirrels, four pigeons and five children follow suit, and then six tourists, seven taxis, eight street vendors and nine robbers! Luckily, 10 police officers appear, bringing 11 tanker trucks and 12 workers with hoses that suck up all the water. The count then reverses, with 12 workers packing up the 11 trucks, 10 police officers arresting the robbers and so forth. Finally, the shaggy dog emerges, shaking the water off his coat and starting a brand new puddle in the process. This otherwise ordinary counting story distinguishes itself with a bit of plot and a rich, precise vocabulary, making it appropriate for a wide range of ages. Soft watercolor illustrations with lots of blues and yellows depict the chaos in exacting detail. Children will enjoy poring over these illustrations, especially the one in which all of the people, animals and objects sink into the puddle. Many beguiling details, such as a cat pinching its nose and a robber grabbing for dollar bills, are there for the spotting.

Kids will be happy to dive right in, whether it’s shared in a lap or as part of a group. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: April 18, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-8037-3765-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
WILD & WOOLLY
by Mary Jessie Parker & illustrated by Shannon McNeill

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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YOUR BABY'S FIRST WORD WILL BE DADA

by Jimmy Fallon ; illustrated by Miguel Ordóñez ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.

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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.

A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)