A cozy read.
A new-baby book about a beloved old baby blanket—and a new one, too.
Bella (illustrated as a white girl with brown hair) loves light-blue, star-patterned Blanket, which she’s had since she was a newborn. By the time her baby brother (also white) is born, Blanket is stained and smelly, muddy, and painty from all of the love she’s given it over the years. New Baby has his own blanket (his is light blue with white stripes), and although she loves him dearly, she thinks “she would love him even more if… / …he didn’t cry as much.” Bella tries to soothe New Baby, but it’s not until she does her favorite happy dance that he stops crying—when Blanket floats into his reach and he grasps it. “ ‘Oh dear,’ said Bella. She wasn’t sure what to do.” Rather than simply taking Blanket away from him, Bella encourages New Baby to bring his blanket to all sorts of fun activities that will make it as loved as hers is. “And when you have grown as big as me, Baby, you will love your blanket ALMOST as much… / as I love you,” Bella tells New Baby as they cuddle under both blankets, together. While the pictures do little to expand on the text, their soft aesthetic creates appealing characters at the heart of the story.
A cozy read. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-074-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The combination of lovingly humorous and detailed mixed-media illustrations and infectious rhymes will cause little ones and...
More than skin deep, this rhyming paean to diversity offers readers an array of families of all colors and orientations, living and loving one another in a vibrant city setting.
A giggling baby is tummy-tickled by her white and black mothers (or white mother and black father—impressively, the illustration leaves room for interpretation) in New York’s Central Park in its summertime glory. "This is how we all begin: / small and happy in our skin." This celebration of skin not only extols the beauty and value of various skin colors, but also teaches the importance of skin as an essential body part: “It keeps the outsides out / and your insides in.” Park, public-pool, and block-party scenes allow readers to luxuriate in a teeming city where children of all colors, abilities, and religions enjoy their families and neighbors. The author and illustrator do not simply take a rote, tokenistic approach to answering the cry for diverse books; the words and pictures depict a much-needed, realistic representation of the statement “it takes a village to raise a child” when a child skins her knee and many rush to her aid and comfort. Though her palette of browns is a little limited, Tobia creates sheer joy with her depictions of everything from unibrows, dimples, and birthmarks to callouts to recognizable literary characters.
The combination of lovingly humorous and detailed mixed-media illustrations and infectious rhymes will cause little ones and their families to pore over this book again and again. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7002-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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