A tender, lyrical offering conveying a message of unconditional love.
A celebration of the bonds between caregivers and their children.
This rhyming picture book opens with an image of a young child and a parent winking and trading high fives in a meadow. As the narrative continues, readers get a window into the lives of numerous other pairings of babies and male-presenting caretakers: a bearded adult in a hat and tracksuit spinning records for a dancing child, a bearded caregiver in a durag fastening a tie around a child’s neck, and a bespectacled, aproned caretaker dancing to the beat a child plays on a set of pots and pans. Written from the point of view of an adult speaking to a child, the book relies on a deliciously fun choice of words: “My wiggle, / your woggle. / My swing, / and your zing.” The book ends with the adult’s assurance that the child is perfect just the way they are and that they should continue to “just BE.” The takeaway is clear—the adult will support this treasured little one no matter what life brings. The exuberant text and whimsical illustrations, rendered in colored pencil, collage, and acrylic, make for a sweetly energetic read-aloud. The pictures feature characters with a variety of skin tones and hair textures. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A tender, lyrical offering conveying a message of unconditional love. (Picture book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781534405394
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.
Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2095-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers.
A board-book ode to parental love as old as the dinosaurs.
A line of text on the left of each spread reads like a dinosaur-themed valentine that a third grader might choose, with punishingly punny wordplay that incorporates dinosaur-related words. On the facing page a dinosaur pair—a baby and an adult—gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes against whimsical, pastel-hued prehistoric-ish backgrounds. In smaller print, in all caps, at the bottom of the left page is the scientific name for the dinosaur referenced by the text and picture followed by a helpful phonetic pronunciation guide. White-outlined footprints appear next to their names, though the white is sometimes difficult to see against the pastel pages. Ten of the best-known dinosaurs are included. Twisting the dinosaur names to fit the loving sentiments succeeds some of the time but more often results in tortured text, well beyond the understanding of the board book audience. The line accompanying two hugging velociraptors, for instance, is just confusing: “Wrap-TOR arms around me, / with you I’ll always stay.” Others are just plain clumsy: “I-wanna-GUANODON you kisses, / I truly just adore you.” Very young children, even those fascinated by dinosaurs, will not get it. Older dinosaur fans will be put off by the babyish format.
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2295-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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