A developmentally accurate model more likely to appeal to caregivers than its intended audience.
The titular genius models the process of language acquisition among the very young.
Koko, a trademark Wells gray-and-white bunny, has “an inbox behind [his] ears.” All day, every day, Koko’s parents and grandparents consciously “fill up that inbox” with words of love, songs, and rhymes. These words appear in boldface in the text and again as free-floating pictorial elements swirling around Koko on their way into his ears. In the lower-right-hand corner of every double-page spread, Wells positions an old-fashioned wooden letter tray in which all the words Koko hears stack up. “Everything Mama, Daddy, Gran, and Gramps said and sang zinged right into Koko’s inbox…until it was so full that all of a sudden…clickety-click ping! Koko’s outbox geared up and kicked in!” Here readers see both the teetering stack of words in Koko’s inbox and an outbox with Hello! in it. On subsequent pages, the inbox has been replaced with an outbox into which Koko’s growing expressive vocabulary piles up. As a metaphor aimed at adults, the book excels. As a story for children, it falls flat; the inbox imagery will likely go over little ones’ heads. Fans of Wells’ mischievous plotting will be disappointed, a final twist offering only thin gruel compared to the exploits of Ruby, Max, and Nora.
A developmentally accurate model more likely to appeal to caregivers than its intended audience. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781665943871
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Sweet.
A caregiving bear shares with its cub how love has defined their relationship from the first moment and through the years as the cub has grown.
With rhymes and a steady rhythm that are less singsong-y than similar books, Stansbie seems to have hit a sweet spot for this offering on the I-love-you-always shelf. Readers follow the adult and child as they share special moments together—a sunset, a splash in a pond, climbing a tree, a snuggle—and the adult tells the child that the love it feels has only grown. Stansbie also takes care not to put promises in the adult bear’s mouth that can’t be delivered, acknowledging that physical proximity is not always possible: “Wherever you are, / even when we’re apart… // I’ll love you forever / with all of my heart.” The large trim size helps the sweet illustrations shine; their emphasis is on the close relationship between parent and child. Shaped peekaboo windows offer glimpses of preceding and succeeding pages, images and text carefully placed to work whatever the context. While the die cuts on the interior pages will not hold up to rough handling, they do add whimsy and delight to the book as a whole: “And now that you’re bigger, / you make my heart sing. / My / beautiful / wonderful / magical / thing.” Those last three adjectives are positioned in leaf-shaped cutouts, the turn of the page revealing the roly-poly cub in a pile of leaves, three formed by the die-cuts. Opposite, three vignettes show the cub appreciating the “beautiful,” the “wonderful,” and the “magical.”
Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68412-910-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Dolphin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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