High marks for concept, art, design, and sheer visual energy.
In a seasonal round, crowds of bright flora and fauna ingeniously constructed from geometric forms pose playful challenges in shape and color recognition.
Two sturdy, toothed wheels turning under die-cut windows on either the right or the left of each big spread are the engines that drive this entry in the Turn Seek Find series. They invite viewers to choose one of four grayscale figures—a robin (this is a French import), a fir tree, a squirrel, or a snowflake in “Winter,” for instance—and one of four colors and then to spot the selection amid a seasonally themed riot of stylized shapes and saturated hues. Along with using evocative color schemes for the four seasons, Giordano fits his semi-abstract figures and their compositions together in such harmonious ways that the seek-and-find game may well take a back seat to the simple pleasures of just poring over each scene, letting lines and transitions guide exploratory eyes to fresh discoveries, seeing the plants and animals (there are many more than the quartet offered on each wheel), and basking in the golden glow of “ Fall” or shivering deliciously in the chilly blues of “Winter.” Still, the game is absorbing too, and it’s capped at the end with elements of the previous pictures recast in a joyous whirl of “All Year Round,” with apples, flies, clover, and frogs to spot. “Hooray, you found them! Now turn the wheels to play again!” The invitation will find no lack of takers.
High marks for concept, art, design, and sheer visual energy. (Novelty board book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-2-40800-789-8
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Nothing riveting but serviceable enough.
Children are introduced to the concepts of sorting and classifying in this bedtime story.
It is getting close to bedtime, and Marco’s mother asks him to put his toys away. Marco—who thinks of himself as a scientist—corrects her: “You mean time to sort the animals.” And that’s what he proceeds to do. Marco sorts his animals into three baskets labeled “Flying Animals,” “Swimming Animals,” and “Animals That Move on Land,” but the animals will not sleep. So he sorts them by color: “Mostly Brown,” “Black and White,” and “Colors of the Rainbow,” but Zebra is upset to be separated from Giraffe. Next, Marco sorts his animals by size: “Small,” “Medium,” and “Large,” but the big animals are cramped and the small ones feel cold. Finally, Marco ranges them around his bed from biggest to smallest, thus providing them with space to move and helping them to feel safe. Everyone satisfied, they all go to sleep. While the plot is flimsy, the general idea that organizing and classifying can be accomplished in many different ways is clear. Young children are also presented with the concept that different classifications can lead to different results. The illustrations, while static, keep the focus clearly on the sorting taking place. Marco and his mother have brown skin. The backmatter includes an explanation of sorting in science and ideas for further activities.
Nothing riveting but serviceable enough. (Math picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62354-128-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
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)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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