A fun and interactively informative introduction to the animal kingdom.
Partial views of several animals highlighting noses ask readers to guess the name of each based on a singular descriptive word.
Opposite concepts are presented for each pair of noses, as in the opening pages: “big nose / tiny nose.” The rather substantial nose of a proboscis monkey is on the left page, and the wee snout of a mouse is on the right. The full animal is never revealed in the black-outlined full-bleed paintings, requiring a guess of the animal’s name. So for the proboscis monkey, a portion of its face and body are shown, while for the mouse, just its whiskered nose peeks out from behind a rounded mouse hole. Readers must refer to the endpaper key to confirm the correct answers. The concept continues throughout, pairing shapes, sizes, and other nose-related features. The simplicity of each two-word phrase with its hidden picture provides opportunities for discussion. The familiar animals will be easily identified, while the lesser known, such as the “narrow nose” of a shrew or the “red nose” of a mandrill, will need some contemplation. Similarly, Whose Tail employs the same strategy; tails are drawn from a fairly easy mixture of farm and zoo animals except, perhaps, for the meerkat. Both end with human portrayals, Nose showing a man’s mustachioed nose and a child’s freckled one (both are white) while Tail depicts children of color, one with no tail and the other wearing a fox costume with a big bushy tail.
A fun and interactively informative introduction to the animal kingdom. (Informational picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-9046-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
A cheery board book to reinforce the oneness of babykind.
Ten babies in 10 countries greet friends in almost 10 languages.
Countries of origin are subtly identified. For example, on the first spread, NYC is emblazoned on a blond, white baby’s hat as well as a brown baby’s scoot-car taxi. On the next spread, “Mexico City” is written on a light brown toddler’s bike. A flag in each illustration provides another hint. However, the languages are not named, so on first reading, the fine but important differences between Spanish and Portuguese are easily missed. This is also a problem on pages showing transliterated Arabic from Cairo and Afrikaans from Cape Town. Similarly, Chinese and Japanese are transliterated, without use of traditional hànzì or kanji characters. British English is treated as a separate language, though it is, after all, still English. French (spoken by 67 million people) is included, but German, Russian, and Hindi (spoken by 101 million, 145 million, and 370 million respectively) are not. English translations are included in a slightly smaller font. This world survey comes full circle, ending in San Francisco with a beige baby sleeping in an equally beige parent’s arms. The message of diversity is reinforced by images of three babies—one light brown, one medium brown, one white—in windows on the final spread.
A cheery board book to reinforce the oneness of babykind. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-938093-87-6
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Duo Press
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
Satisfying, engaging, and sure to entertain the toddlers at whom it is aimed.
Nine basic shapes in vivid shifting colors are stacked on pages in various permutations.
This visually striking and carefully assembled collection of shapes, which seems to have been inspired by an Eric Carle aesthetic, invites young children to put their observation, categorization, problem-solving, color, and spatial-relation skills to work, pondering shapes and compositions—and even learning about prepositions in the process. As the text says, “a stack of shapes can make you think and wonder what you see.” First, readers see a circle under a strawberry (the red diamond with a leafy, green top and yellow-triangle seeds) and then that berry over a green square. The orange oval made to look like a fish is added to a stack of three shapes to become “yellow over diamond under guppy over green.” And so on. The metamorphosis of many of these simple shapes into animals (a yellow circle becomes a lion; a green square, a frog; a pink heart, a pig; a yellow diamond, a chicken) will surprise and delight children. Questions are directed at readers: Is a square with two round eyes and semicircle feet a “frog or square or green?” Why, all of the above! The text possesses a pleasing rhythm and subtle rhymes, positively begging to be read aloud: “circle next to berry / square by bear by sweet // blue up high / pig down low / yellow in between.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Satisfying, engaging, and sure to entertain the toddlers at whom it is aimed. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-79720-508-3
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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