Yes, you can find fingerplays and songs online. But this simple board book and its companions are a more age-appropriate and...
A traditional nursery rhyme in board-book format.
In this version, the musical notation is included on the back cover but without fingerplay directions. No matter; toddlers will quickly match actions to the words. The challenge will be settling them down for the next story after the satisfying “Five, four, three, two, one… / BLAST OFF!” Kubler’s multiracial cast of astronauts includes a black child who uses a wheelchair and two in glasses. The children’s costumes and their rocket ships appear homemade. Though the children are busy, Kubler’s illustrations are not. Using a palette reminiscent of slightly faded construction paper, she provides just enough detail to tell the story. Three more rhymes published simultaneously follow the same format. Round and Round the Garden and Sleeping Bunnies are not so well known in the United States, but a fresh version of Wheels on the Bus is always welcome. All use the traditional wording. In Garden, both the child in the bear costume and the friend who tickles wear glasses; a bespectacled white child and a black child who both wear bunny pajamas play the key roles in Bunnies. Clever caregivers will let children take turns acting out the different roles.
Yes, you can find fingerplays and songs online. But this simple board book and its companions are a more age-appropriate and satisfying way to introduce toddlers to sometimes-neglected storytime traditions. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78628-199-9
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead.
An Easter-themed board-book parody of the traditional nursery rhyme.
Unfortunately, this effort is just as sugary and uninspired as The Itsy Bitsy Snowman, offered by the same pair in 2015. A cheerful white bunny hops through a pastel world to distribute candy and treats for Easter but spills his baskets. A hedgehog, fox, mouse, and various birds come to the bunny’s rescue, retrieving the candy, helping to devise a distribution plan, and hiding the eggs. Then magically, they all fly off in a hot air balloon as the little animals in the village emerge to find the treats. Without any apparent purpose, the type changes color to highlight some words. For very young children every word is new, so highlighting “tiny tail” or “friends” makes no sense. Although the text is meant to be sung, the words don't quite fit the rhythm of the original song. Moreover, there are not clear motions to accompany the text; without the fingerplay movements, this book has none of the satisfying verve of the traditional version.
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5621-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An acceptable and sturdy addition to the Easter basket for baby bunnies deemed too young to handle Dorothy Kunhardt's more...
Following on the successful Five Little Pumpkins (2003), Yaccarino teams with Rabe for bunnies.
The five pastel bunnies are cute enough, and the rhymes are accurate, if somewhat wordy for toddlers. But without a clear one-to-one relationship between the words and the pictures, it is not always clear which bunny is speaking and what is being counted. The bunnies, identified as first, second, and so on, hop around the pages instead of staying in a consistent order as the rhyme implies. Naming them by color might have been a better choice, but that would mean abandoning the finger-play counting-rhyme formula. The children who show up to hunt the eggs are a multicultural cast of cartoonish figures with those in the background drawn as blue and green silhouettes. Though the text on the back cover invites children to count the eggs, there is no hint as to how many eggs they should find. Neither the verse nor the pictures provide counting assistance. The youngest children will not care about any of this; they will be content to point out the different colors of the bunnies and the patterns on the eggs.
An acceptable and sturdy addition to the Easter basket for baby bunnies deemed too young to handle Dorothy Kunhardt's more satisfying but fragile classic, Pat the Bunny. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-225339-2
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HarperFestival
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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