The robot’s lively antics are amusing, but the story feels overly mechanical.
Two robot buddies struggle to share a remote-control car.
Standroid and Dandroid, a pair of robots constructed from lightly detailed simple shapes, one in fuchsia and one in gold, are “powered up” to play. At first, their individual games all mesh to create even better playtimes, as when one’s soap and the other’s water combine to make supercool bubbles, but a difficult-to-share remote-control car causes tension. For inanimate objects, the expressive motion lines and evocatively angled circular eyes against white background make the robots’ many emotions abundantly clear. They are never more so than when the increasingly jealous fuchsia robot (which is which is never entirely clear) declares that “sharing does not compute.” A tussle erupts, and the remote comes apart, revealing a “secret button” inside. Chagrined, they decide to press the button together, which starts a raucous laser show and “dance party.” It’s a feel-good ending for sure, but it’s also unsatisfying. Though the androids declare their decision to share, the phrase used—“Overriding self mode. / Initiating share sequence”—is bewilderingly confusing, and the two androids never actually model any sharing; rather it’s the improbable secret button that saves the day. Read aloud, the book achieves an appropriately robotic tone, but an overreliance on sophisticated tech words such as “sensors” and “activate” seems intended more for adult readers than the child audience.
The robot’s lively antics are amusing, but the story feels overly mechanical. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0569-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Is this a nature book? Not really. But with beautiful young faces respecting living creatures, it is a great choice for...
With expressions of wonder and delight, little toddlers explore nature in its tiniest forms, seeing critters and flowers with the curiosity of new eyes.
McPike and Barton have created a companion book to their comforting bedtime read-aloud, Little Sleepyhead (2015). This outing repeats the same rhythmic couplets, bringing together the simplest of flora and fauna with a racially diverse group of toddlers. Barton uses digitized pencil sketches to capture the wide-eyed, breath-holding feeling of seeing a caterpillar for the first time. The children’s delight in the snails, bluebirds, and bunnies is a gentle introduction to quietly observing nature. "Little bitty chipmunks, chattering all the day / Little bitty ladybug always comes to play." (Here a ladybug crawls across a giggling toddler’s forehead.) The illustrations are open and breezy with white space, and the spare text printed in different colors keeps the focus simple. While the repeated phrase of "little bitty" provides a consistent thread from beginning to end, the uniqueness of every child is clear. Yet even the wide range of skin tones and hairstyles is secondary to the universal feeling of wonder.
Is this a nature book? Not really. But with beautiful young faces respecting living creatures, it is a great choice for toddler libraries. (Picture book. 1-3)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17255-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Put on those gardening gloves; the fruits of this labor beckon.
A young girl watches her garden grow.
Though she's a bit older than the typical board-book audience, her self-reliance makes her an appealing character for toddlers struggling to assert their independence. The strategic use of sturdy flaps provides both peekaboo fun and structure to the storyline. “Yellow daisy. / Red rose. / A bud blooms. / [lift flap] A flower grows.” Some of the interactive elements clearly connect objects to one another (shovel, pail), while other pairings review the progress of the blossoming outdoors. The child enjoys the results of her hard work (smelling a flower has never been so sweet) and waters her lush plants with her pint-sized watering can. Varied vocabulary extends the text. “Harvest carrots / . . . squash and peas. / [lift flap] Pollinated by the bees.” Perhaps due to their having been printed on recycled paper with soy inks, the matte sides of the flaps tend to be darker than the rest, which are glossy.
Put on those gardening gloves; the fruits of this labor beckon. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-93041-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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