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LIFT AND SEE FARM

From the My First Matching Book series

Stimulating, interactive fun in a chunky board book that will stand up to lots of use.

Featuring a collection of familiar farm animals, this sturdy selection offers lift-the-flap fun that will keep kids guessing.

The clever design and layout create a visually striking, interactive treat. The left-hand pages display a large, close-up photo of an animal—beginning with a duck—against a white background punctuated by brightly colored word balloons reading, “Can you match me?” and “quack!” A simple sentence completes the page: “Lift and see!” The right-hand pages are divided horizontally into three strips, each bearing a close-up image of an animal’s skin, fur or feathers with a liftable flap in the center. Readers must guess which close-up belongs to the featured animal. On the duck spread, lifting a red-and-black flap reveals a ladybug, while a feathery-looking flap in shades of gray conceals a hedgehog. Hiding beneath the fuzzy yellow flap is the correct match: the fluffy duckling. Following the same format, a companion volume, Lift and See Animals (978-1-58925-613-2), features wilder critters, including a tiger, elephant, macaw, zebra and giraffe. The littlest readers will simply want to lift the flaps to discover which animals are hiding underneath, while older tots will enjoy the challenge of finding the match.

Stimulating, interactive fun in a chunky board book that will stand up to lots of use. (Board books. 1-4)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-58925-612-5

Page Count: 10

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014

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SPOOKY POOKIE

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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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S SPRINGTIME

From the Little Blue Truck series

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.

Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.

This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)

Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0

Page Count: 16

Publisher: HMH Books

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

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