With such creative illustrations beckoning to readers, children may muster up their decoding skills to get through the...
Nat the rat, Pat the rat, and Matt the rat try to steal the jam that Gram is making for Ann, Fran, and Stan.
In a nutshell, that is the plot of this phonics book for emergent readers, one of a new series, Bright Owl Books. The short “a” sound is the focus, but the appeal is in the original photo illustrations that will grab children’s interest even if the words and bare story don’t. Stuffed white mice and gray rats are dressed and posed in fascinating environments filled with old toys, baskets, textured fabrics, and painted antique containers. These photos look like stills from a stop-action animated film that should have been produced with a more exciting storyline. A skirt, apron, and shawl in three different vintage prints adorn Gram’s small figure, tiny spectacles perched on her pink stitched nose, in just one of the lovingly made costumes for the toy creatures. While most of the dialogue-driven text supports the repetition of the short “a” sound (“I am a bandit, ma'am. Hand over the jam”), some of the vocabulary is more advanced and occasionally inconsistent in its reinforcement of its chosen sound. Publishing simultaneously are Cubs in a Tub, Hop, Frog!, Princess Pig, and Wet Hen.
With such creative illustrations beckoning to readers, children may muster up their decoding skills to get through the purposeful text, perhaps with a little help from an adult. (Early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57565-973-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kane Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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