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THE BIGGEST STORY

Name: THE BIGGEST STORY
Author: Sarah Coyle
ISBN: 978-1-68464-045-4

by Sarah Coyle ; illustrated by Dan Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2020

A nifty way to encourage imaginative play and storytelling.

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When Errol’s mother is too busy to tell him a story, she convinces him that he can make up and tell one himself.

After a few jumping jacks and a headstand in the garden, Errol’s big story begins. Word quickly spreads about his project, and soon Errol, with brown skin and cottony black hair like his mom’s, finds himself surrounded by talking ants and cats, sheep who perform aerial stunts, animals escaped from a wildlife park, and even two time-traveling dinosaurs—all eager to be included as characters in his story. After she finishes her work with the plumbing, Errol’s mom comes to the garden to listen to the story he’s been working on, which includes all of the animals in the backyard—but she doesn’t seem to be able to see them. While Errol is telling the story, the illustrations move from full-page, fairly soft-focus bleeds to sequentially paneled cartoons with dialogue balloons and sound effects like those found in comic books. (Readers in the U.S. will note that a cat character in Errol’s story wields what it calls a “catapult”—the British term for a slingshot, which may require a bit of explanation from adults.) After the story ends, prompts are provided to encourage readers to make up their own stories.

A nifty way to encourage imaginative play and storytelling. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-68464-045-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kane Miller

Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, MR. BROWN?

by Justin Rhodes ; illustrated by Heather Dickinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2023

Pedestrian.

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Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.

Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 14, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals

Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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TOYS GALORE

by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children...

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A fizzy yet revealing romp through the toy world.

Though of standard picture-book size, Stein and illustrator Staake’s latest collaboration (Bugs Galore, 2012, etc.) presents a sweeping compendium of diversions for the young. From fairies and gnomes, race cars and jacks, tin cans and socks, to pots ’n’ pans and a cardboard box, Stein combs the toy kingdom for equally thrilling sources of fun. These light, tightly rhymed quatrains focus nicely on the functions characterizing various objects, such as “Floaty, bubbly, / while-you-wash toys” or “Sharing-secrets- / with-tin-cans toys,” rather than flatly stating their names. Such ambiguity at once offers Staake free artistic rein to depict copious items capable of performing those tasks and provides pre-readers ample freedom to draw from the experiences of their own toy chests as they scan Staake’s vibrant spreads brimming with chunky, digitally rendered objects and children at play. The sense of community and sharing suggested by most of the spreads contributes well to Stein’s ultimate theme, which he frames by asking: “But which toy is / the best toy ever? / The one most fun? / Most cool and clever?” Faced with three concluding pages filled with all sorts of indoor and outside toys to choose from, youngsters may be shocked to learn, on turning to the final spread, that the greatest one of all—“a toy SENSATION!”—proves to be “[y]our very own / imagination.”

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)