Musical mayhem to entertain and engage.
Animal patterns fill a musical staff, and both conductor and baton are warmed up!
A wild array of bow-tied animals awaits their human conductor, who opens the performance with a spirited allegro beat. The fish, insects, and mammals leap and pounce. Now the beat slows down to an adagio tempo that puts the fauna to sleep. A gracefully swift upbeat by the conductor sends the critters, tummy side down, “gliding, slipping, sliding” in a glissando. But then quickly executed arcs through the air herald a staccato beat that brings back leaping kangaroos and arcing dolphins along with jumping frogs and rabbits. Calm returns in dolce, as birds and koalas find love and pandas eat bamboo. But wait, this is not the end, as with the intensity of fortissimo, the baton flies out of the conductor’s outstretched fingers, and noisy gorillas, lions, and hyenas bellow and roar. Sigh. Peace returns in pianissimo as eyes close and animals snuggle down. A pronunciation guide complete with succinct definitions concludes this orchestral workout. Scratchy cartoon illustrations cleverly and colorfully depict the many musical moods with humor. Fingers will tap, hands will clap, and feet will stomp along with a reading that should have musical accompaniment. Perhaps The Nutcracker? And guessing which animal fits into which instrument case on the cover is an added element of fun. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Musical mayhem to entertain and engage. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0274-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together.
A clueless duckling tries to make a new friend.
He is confused by this peculiar-looking duck, who has a long tail, doesn’t waddle and likes to be alone. No matter how explicitly the creature denies he is a duck and announces that he is a cat, the duckling refuses to acknowledge the facts. When this creature expresses complete lack of interest in playing puddle stomp, the little ducking goes off and plays on his own. But the cat is not without remorse for rejecting an offered friendship. Of course it all ends happily, with the two new friends enjoying each other’s company. Bramsen employs brief sentences and the simplest of rhymes to tell this slight tale. The two heroes are meticulously drawn with endearing, expressive faces and body language, and their feathers and fur appear textured and touchable. Even the detailed tree bark and grass seem three-dimensional. There are single- and double-page spreads, panels surrounded by white space and circular and oval frames, all in a variety of eye-pleasing juxtapositions. While the initial appeal is solidly visual, young readers will get the gentle message that friendship is not something to take for granted but is to be embraced with open arms—or paws and webbed feet.
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86990-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
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