All in all, a cheerful bilingual introduction to familiar emotions.
Translating feelings into simple pictures and words is a challenge in one language; this book does it in both English and Spanish.
Eleven emotions are named in English and Spanish opposite a cheery cartoon animal. Lift the almost-full-page flap to find a question (in both languages) above the creature demonstrating the emotion. Happy and sad are straightforward, so the sentence under each flap asks, “Can you show me a happy [or sad] face?” With more complex, nuanced emotions, the question becomes a variation on “How does feeling excited look? / ¿Cómo estar emocionado/a?” (An anthropomorphic star demonstrates.) Gender variants of the Spanish words are consistently indicated by ending the word with o/a. Prompted by changes in facial expressions and posture, young children will readily act out the feelings. A cartoon chick demonstrates happy/feliz, sad/triste, brave/valiente, and afraid/asustado while an angry/enjado elephant, surprised/sorprendida spider, confused/confundido bunny, proud/ogulloso frog, and tired/cansada chicken also make appearances. A brown-skinned human child with a Troll-like shock of orange hair models shy/timido. There is no pronunciation guide, but the publisher’s YouTube site (referenced on the back cover) includes a bilingual reading.
All in all, a cheerful bilingual introduction to familiar emotions. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-945635-35-9
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Encantos
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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