Tailor-made for a naptime cuddle.
Reid and Lyles create a colorful world of parent-child love.
Each page turn reveals a different animal and environment, each done in a striking palette, including spring green, ocean blue, and desert brown. Stunning collages made with hand-painted paper, pencil, and crayon range from simpler cutouts of sheep grazing on a hilly pasture and a light-skinned human parent at the beach as the sun sets, to a mourning dove and her baby in an intricately constructed nest. Two stanzas of easy-to-read rhyming verse accompany each family scene. Each spread starts with the refrain “If all the earth.” Reid then mentions a hypothetical situation and concludes with a specific way the parent would care for and protect the child (“If all the earth / were ice and snow / and you were small and new, / I’d shelter you, my chick, my chick— / secure until you grew”). Many verses also include the specific term for the baby animal, such as a sheep’s lamb, a dolphin’s calf, a goat’s kid, and a penguin’s chick. Though Reid includes two stanzas of verse for each animal, at the end, she uses four stanzas for the human parent and child. Richly colored, detailed illustrations and short verses brimming with love make this book a good candidate for one-on-one reading (and snuggling). Backmatter offers additional information about each animal’s devoted parenting behavior and in two cases (emperor penguins and gorillas) describes the role of fathers.
Tailor-made for a naptime cuddle. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781524739812
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Beloved Little Blue takes a bit of the mystery—and fear—out of Halloween costumes.
A lift-the-flap book gives the littlest trick-or-treaters some practice identifying partygoers under their costumes.
Little Blue Truck and his buddy Toad are off to a party, and they invite readers (and a black cat) along for the ride: “ ‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’ / says Little Blue. / ‘It’s Halloween!’ / You come, too.” As they drive, they are surprised (and joined) by many of their friends in costume. “Who’s that in a tutu / striking a pose / up on the tiniest / tips of her toes? / Under the mask / who do you see?” Lifting the flap unmasks a friend: “ ‘Quack!’ says the duck. / ‘It’s me! It’s me!’ ” The sheep is disguised as a clown, the cow’s a queen, the pig’s a witch, the hen and her chick are pirates, and the horse is a dragon. Not to be left out, Little Blue has a costume, too. The flaps are large and sturdy, and enough of the animals’ characteristic features are visible under and around the costumes that little ones will be able to make successful guesses even on the first reading. Lovely curvy shapes and autumn colors fade to dusky blues as night falls, and children are sure to notice the traditional elements of a Halloween party: apple bobbing, lit jack-o’-lanterns, and punch and treats.
Beloved Little Blue takes a bit of the mystery—and fear—out of Halloween costumes. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-77253-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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