Potentially helpful but far from terrific.
The new Terrific Toddlers series explores toddlerhood’s trials and jubilations.
The book’s opening page juxtaposes an illustration of first-aid supplies with expository text that reads, “Sometimes we get boo-boos! Sometimes boo-boos hurt, and sometimes they are scary.” The next spread shifts to a narrative about a little girl named Jo-Jo who appears black, with light brown skin and hair done up in two twists. When she falls and hurts her chin, her father (who shares her coloring) comforts her, and then he uses the first-aid supplies from the first page to treat her small wound. While the text provides good modeling for adult readers to use to validate, calm, and distract kids with minor injuries such as this, the watercolor illustrations falter in their characterization of Daddy and his expressions. His vacant, distant stares on some spreads are anything but comforting. This artistic misstep is apparent in the companion titles, All Mine! (about helping toddlers share) and Bye-Bye! (about dealing with everyday separation anxiety). Both of these latter books feature multiracial casts of characters, and all three have a backmatter “Note to Parents and Caregivers” expanding on their respective focuses. Sadly, they also all include flawed depictions of adults whose facial expressions are difficult to read, which seems especially damning in books about adults helping children with emotional regulation.
Potentially helpful but far from terrific. (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4338-2875-1
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Wonderful, indeed
A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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