Useful and adorable—a delightful mix.
An approachable instruction manual introducing a collection of nursery songs.
Been a while since you sang some classic nursery songs with a little one? Those tricky words and actions not quite coming back to you? This board book has you covered! Designed with the lyrics to different songs clearly printed on each page, the book offers smaller, italicized directions that describe any actions that go along with the ditty—so no one will miss the ever popular nose-beep during “The Wheels on the Bus.” There’s no accompanying musical notations, so if readers aren’t already familiar with the melody, they won’t find any help here, but it will cue those who already know the tune. Some, like “London Bridge,” described only as a “bouncing rhyme,” are a little light on details. The nursery songs are primarily British in origin, with no forays into the repertoires of other cultures, but the sunny vignettes of children that decorate the pages depict a sweetly diverse bunch. Beaming, delicately lined, racially diverse cherubs wear “Five Little Speckled Frogs” frog costumes; two necklace- and tutu-adorned, gender-ambiguous tots rock out to “Here We Go Looby Loo”; the title song is illustrated with two children playing on an adaptive seesaw, extending diversity to disability. A well-made, reinforced cardboard cover with rounded edges will extend the book’s life. The simultaneously publishing Five Little Ducks and Pat-a-Cake are just as successful.
Useful and adorable—a delightful mix. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78628-409-9
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
With its companions, a baby-friendly classic.
In this retold nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty is a hapless, egg-shaped crab.
The orange-red protagonist sits on a wall that looks to be the sunken ruin of a sand castle and then suffers the inevitable fall. The king’s horses and king’s men are sea horse stretcher bearers and an operating trio of a shrimp, a shark, and a dolphin, respectively. True to the rhyme, they are unsuccessful in healing Humpty Dumpty, so the crab, who likely needs better health insurance, is sent on his way still cracked and bandaged. Animals similarly star in companion titles. A bear plays the role of “baker’s man” in Pat-a-Cake, marking a cake “for baby and me” with a large blue B and inexplicably frosting it before baking it. The stars of Jack and Jill are two goats, one white and one black, respectively, who climb a peak only for Jack to fall and break a horn, which is somehow miraculously fixed on the final page. In Mary Had a Little Lamb, Mary is a purple lamb who has a beloved stuffed lamb toy with whitish-gray fleece. This is the only classic text that is condensed; the repetition of the song is absent, which makes singing in time to the page turns difficult. In the other titles, the lines of rhyme flow quite nicely; particularly effective is the page-turn pause before Jill comes “tumbling after.” Quintanilla’s imagery has an endearing cuteness, featuring animals with voluminous eyes on oversize heads.
With its companions, a baby-friendly classic. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1669-2
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
An acceptable addition for schools or households seeking to promote bilingual Spanish/English skills.
A bilingual board book based on a well-known Spanish folk song.
Identical illustrations in cleverly bound dual versions star the same cheery cartoon animals as other titles in the series. Following the first verse of the song, it then moves to teach basic colors in both languages. The English translation, modified to avoid the awkward syntax of a literal translation, does not always match the original meter, and, unlike most translations, this version substitutes “All the colors” for the Spanish “De colores.” In both renditions, large, sturdy lift-the-flap panels on the last six pages conceal six colors: red/rojo, orange/naranjo, yellow/amarillo, green/verde, blue/azul, and purple/morado. While the accordion-fold design ensures that neither language takes precedence, it also makes the book heavy, awkward to hold, and difficult for young children to reassemble when (inevitably) opened all the way out. In both versions the cover initially opens from the left, which may confuse children just learning page-turning conventions in either language. Colophon pages in English and Spanish include a web address to access a video version of the song in both languages, which will be helpful for people unfamiliar with the tune or pronunciation in either language (though young children may find the video more entertaining than the book).
An acceptable addition for schools or households seeking to promote bilingual Spanish/English skills. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-945635-27-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Encantos
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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