A sweet story with lovely illustrations to boot, developmentally pitch-perfect for older babies and toddlers.
A little hedgehog hurries home in an effort to avoid a coming storm in this bilingual board book.
A baby hedgehog is out rooting around for “good things to eat.” Suddenly, storm clouds appear on the horizon, an owl hoots a warning, and soon the little critter is on the way home to Mama. The bottom half of each double-page spread is filled with beautiful, inky illustrations. The top half is further divided in two: the right side dedicated to English text and the left devoted to corresponding Mandarin Chinese (with the occasional exclamation point or question mark). Little ones will thrill at the hedgehog's ever-so-slightly perilous journey home, and older ones will enjoy figuring how the English words translate and vice versa. The hedgehog’s flight introduces the vocabulary of the natural world—clouds, wind, pine cones—as well as onomatopoeia and a fresh cultural reference: “Rain falls hard like soybeans.” Stylized animals and flora have good, distinct outlines and are filled with bright but still-natural colors. The final pages of the book supply a helpful glossary of tones and the story reproduced in both characters and pinyin. A companion board book entitled Squirrel Round and Round publishes simultaneously.
A sweet story with lovely illustrations to boot, developmentally pitch-perfect for older babies and toddlers. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6598-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside.
Readers can count down eight of Santa's reindeer as they jump up and out of the scene.
In each one of the mostly double-page spreads, one reindeer, from Dasher to Blitzen, plays a central role in a winter activity (sledding, ski jumping, ice skating—and soccer and yoga?) that launches the creature into the air. Glitter-speckled tabs, each with small portraits of a member of Santa's herd, appear at either the top or the right side of each page, which little fingers will enjoy flipping. In what looks to be pencil-and-watercolor cartoons, Rogers uses different facial expressions, as well as collars, bows or other accessories, to distinguish the reindeer from one another. Donner (not Donder) and Blitzen are squeezed together on the penultimate spread, likely to keep the page count down. The verse mostly scans, but the rhyme scheme has become the cliché of counting books: "Eight jolly reindeer / stretching up to heaven. / Up goes Dasher / and then there are... // Seven...." Santa, his iconic sleigh and the eight reindeer in flight make a dramatic and required appearance on the book's final double-page spread.
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-65145-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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