Toddlers will enjoy identifying the healthy vegetables—and they may even be stirred to eat them when they appear at...
Rhyming text and clever colorful illustrations by a mother-daughter duo feature in this delightful board book.
When dark-haired, white-skinned Allie goes into her garden one morning to harvest vegetables, she finds some creatures hiding there. Will there be any vegetables left for Allie? “I walked to my garden / where the corn grew high, / and a noisy black crow / went flying by.” Daughter Osborn’s (Hungry Henry, 2016) striking mixed-media artwork brings together three kinds of illustrations on the same page: a pen-and-ink cartoon Allie and her basket, photographs of fresh, delicious vegetables (corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and more), and expressive animals cleverly carved from vegetables. The crow is made from an eggplant, and there’s a floppy-eared bunny made from a potato, a carrot fox, and a cucumber-and–bell pepper snake. The vibrant vegetables stand out on the white background on all the pages.
Toddlers will enjoy identifying the healthy vegetables—and they may even be stirred to eat them when they appear at dinnertime. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-936669-53-0
Page Count: 14
Publisher: blue manatee press
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Like the little bear in Frank Asch’s Pizza (2015), toddlers will be left with an appetite for seconds. And thirds….
Following a stack of Pancakes! (2016), Nieminen dishes up ingredients and instructions for another tasty treat.
Equally suitable for real or imaginary kitchens, this recipe in board-book format begins with geometrically stylized representations of ingredients (“1 teaspoon of sugar,” for instance, is represented by a round-topped white triangle) and required bowls, measuring cups, and other gear. It then goes on to steps for mixing, kneading, and rising the dough, pre-cooking the crust, adding sauce (from a jar) and toppings, and baking until done. Labels and captions identify everything and explain each step in turn. Prospective chefs too young to do the actual cooking can pretend or follow along by using heavy-duty pull tabs to simulate pouring and mixing, then “knead” a smooth plastic pad, set the oven temperature with a geared wheel (and, prompts a safety note, an adult’s help, as “real ovens are hot!”), lift a flap to check the pie, and finally pull out a wedge-shaped slice when it’s finished. “Delicious!”
Like the little bear in Frank Asch’s Pizza (2015), toddlers will be left with an appetite for seconds. And thirds…. (Informational novelty. 2-4)Pub Date: May 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7148-7409-8
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Phaidon
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Given the dearth of board books about community helpers, caregivers and libraries will be happy to deliver this Tinyville...
The latest in the Tinyville series extends the field of board books about careers.
A smiling and determined mom has a job to do—deliver the mail, whatever the weather. Her first stop is school, where she delivers her children; her final task is reading them a bedtime story. In between, and despite the rain, she cheerfully delivers letters and packages all over a refreshingly multicultural Anytown (our protagonist has brown skin). Her work ethic is shown, not explained. A mustachioed gentleman asks, “Any packages for me today?” to initial disappointment. Three pages later, the expected package is found in the almost-empty mail sack. Back she goes, waving off his thanks matter-of-factly: “It’s my job.” Biggs’ background in comics and advertising is apparent. The mail carrier tells her own story, with conversational speech bubbles used when she interacts with customers. Black-lined illustrations are consistent from page to page, with her purple umbrella providing a contrast to her blue uniform. All but two of the simple pictures span a full spread. Unfortunately, adjacent illustrations collide in one. Apparently, Biggs had more pictures than pages and more information than would fit easily into a 22-page board book. This design flaw is not fatal but suggests an audience of older toddlers and preschoolers rather than babies.
Given the dearth of board books about community helpers, caregivers and libraries will be happy to deliver this Tinyville title to their young readers. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2833-4
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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