Bright but small pictures provide many opportunities for vocabulary development when read one-on-one, but don't try to use...
A busy addition to the Bright Start Right Start series.
This little book tries to cover too much. Each page has between eight and 14 small pictures of everyday objects familiar to most toddlers. The first spread is “about me,” and subsequent topics include family, home, outside, fun, food, transportation, animals, bathtime, and finally sleep. The organization is logical, but some of the concepts are too abstract to be defined by just a few pictures. For example, it is not possible to include all possible configurations and ethnic varieties of families in just eight pictures with 13 labels, but it tries, and as a consequence, all the pictures are too small. Other books in the series are more successful. The layout in Farm Animals includes one large picture with three small pictures on the facing page that provide additional information about each animal. In Shapes, a large image is on the left, with four examples of the shape on the right. The most effective spread in Opposites shows just one red car and then a front and back view. Unfortunately the other spreads are much more cluttered, so the concepts are less clear. On the plus side, the series aligns nicely with emergent-literacy principles. In addition to the labeled pictures, questions to encourage parent-child interaction are on every page.
Bright but small pictures provide many opportunities for vocabulary development when read one-on-one, but don't try to use this in a group setting. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-910184-74-5
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside.
Readers can count down eight of Santa's reindeer as they jump up and out of the scene.
In each one of the mostly double-page spreads, one reindeer, from Dasher to Blitzen, plays a central role in a winter activity (sledding, ski jumping, ice skating—and soccer and yoga?) that launches the creature into the air. Glitter-speckled tabs, each with small portraits of a member of Santa's herd, appear at either the top or the right side of each page, which little fingers will enjoy flipping. In what looks to be pencil-and-watercolor cartoons, Rogers uses different facial expressions, as well as collars, bows or other accessories, to distinguish the reindeer from one another. Donner (not Donder) and Blitzen are squeezed together on the penultimate spread, likely to keep the page count down. The verse mostly scans, but the rhyme scheme has become the cliché of counting books: "Eight jolly reindeer / stretching up to heaven. / Up goes Dasher / and then there are... // Seven...." Santa, his iconic sleigh and the eight reindeer in flight make a dramatic and required appearance on the book's final double-page spread.
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-65145-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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