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
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on...
An exploration of the human body through colorful photos.
Every other double-page spread labels the individual parts on one major area: head, torso, back, arm and leg. Ethnically diverse boy-girl pairs serve as models as arrows point to specific features and captions float nearby. While the book usefully mentions rarely depicted body parts, such as eyebrow, armpit and shin, some of the directional arrows are unclear. The arrow pointing at a girl’s shoulder hits her in the upper arm, and the belly button is hard is distinguish from the stomach (both are concealed by shirts). Facts about the human body (“Guess what? You have tiny hairs in your nose that keep out dirt”) appear on alternating spreads along with photos of kids in action. Baby Animals, another title in the Look & Learn series, uses an identical format to introduce readers to seal pups, leopard cubs, elephant calves, ducklings and tadpoles. In both titles, the final spread offers a review of the information and encourages readers to match baby animals to their parents or find body parts on a photo of kids jumping on a trampoline.
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on the right track despite earlier titles that were much too conceptual for the audience. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4263-1483-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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BOOK REVIEW
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