A warm introduction to an old favorite.
The American classic is presented with some cuddly illustrations.
The nursery song "Old MacDonald" is known to millions young and old, and this board book does it justice, or at least one stanza of it. Illustrator Brown brings to it the same warmth she used in her illustrations in Grandma Loves You (2013), presenting the titular farmer as a large, anthropomorphic rabbit. With her wide-brimmed hat and polka-dot farmer's boots, Old MacDonald tends to her farm as the text describes the abundance of yellow chicks on the farm, one line per double-page spread. Accompanying "Here a chick, there a chick” are a dog and cat benignly watching the busy baby birds; accompanying “Everywhere a chick, chick” are two hogs in a wallow, a Jersey cow, and still more chicks. The chicks poke around the pumpkin patch and the barn, and they hitch rides on the other barnyard animals. The final pages of the book feature an identification activity, with pictures of all the farm animals and the noises they make. Motivated adults can then take their little readers through many more iterations of the song on their own.
A warm introduction to an old favorite. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58536-609-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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
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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
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