Fine for Peppa’s partisans, but similar and better-designed vocabulary books abound.
With over 250 television episodes featuring Peppa Pig airing on Nick Jr television stations, this vocabulary board book will find an audience.
The large trim size (nearly 10 inches square) allows for plenty of space for seven categories, each with 17 to 23 words. Many are compound words or phrases (“sand castle”; “party hat”) and/or words not found on standard beginning reader word lists (“scooter”; “cash register”). Most of the groupings are logical (Daddy and Mummy Pig are “In my house,” for instance), but placing “Granny Pig” and “Grandpa Pig” “In the garden” feels arbitrary. Presumably, they could just as easily be found “At the park” or “At the supermarket.” Each spread includes two to four sturdy flaps that hide pictures and more vocabulary. Occasionally, what is hidden defies logic. For example, moving the unlabeled drawbridge on a “castle” on the “Playtime” pages reveals a “dinosaur,” but the label is outside the castle. Why is there a single “banana” behind a full “basket”? Librarians will suck their teeth when they see that the “book” flap lifts to reveal a green “marker.” Still, the “spider” behind the “picture” hung on the wall is a mordant touch. Since the popular pig is featured multiple times on every spread, these details won’t matter to Peppa’s fans.
Fine for Peppa’s partisans, but similar and better-designed vocabulary books abound. (Picture book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-22877-9
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Don’t judge this book by its cover; there’s an unusual concept and whimsical illustrations hiding underneath
A series of solid shapes substitute for natural objects in this board book that is somewhere between concept book and riddle game.
What’s that shape supposed to be? Running across a rust-brown labeled triangle, amid trees and elk, the text “Climb a TRIANGLE to the top” suggests the shape is a mountain; in an ocean scene with a red “STAR washed in on the waves,” the shape implies a sea star. Ample visual cues give young readers enough context to guess what the shape evokes, with some unexpected touches, such as “HEXAGON” printed on hexagonal honeycombs buzzing with bees and surrounded by golden flowers. Short, commanding sentences keep things humming, but with only six shapes covered, the book feels all too brief. Illustrator Devernay combines delicate pencil line drawings and sketchy gray-black shading with tiny, meticulously cut colored-paper collage to create her plants and animals. The most intimate drawings amaze. Close-ups of smooth stones are so appealing that readers will long to pick one up and “rub a smooth OVAL between thumb and finger.” Sadly, the cover doesn’t do the interior justice, and things get murky when several hues mix there and on the final spread. But on other spreads, where there’s a single color, it pops against the gray, such as the minute yellow beaks on the flock of charcoal birds circling the yellow “CIRCLE” sun.
Don’t judge this book by its cover; there’s an unusual concept and whimsical illustrations hiding underneath . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-56846-317-9
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BLOG
A fun, new take on droppings.
Youngsters can learn about where and how various animals, domestic and wild, relieve themselves.
Via a pull-tab embedded in each recto (not, thankfully, in the rectum) readers can see the before and after, and a goldfish in a bowl leaves a trail while swimming. The verso asks each creature where it does its business, and then a (sometimes-forced) rhyming quatrain, translated from Italian, answers the question: “And where do YOU poop, mouse? / When inside my tummy / Starts to feel not so good / It’s time for a poop / On these chips made of wood!” The final double-page spread queries readers: “And where do YOU poop?” A redheaded, White toddler’s face is visible below this question; the pull-tab on the right opens a bathroom to reveal a White toddler, this time with medium brown hair, happily and modestly sitting on a blue toddler potty. The accompanying quatrain provides some developmentally appropriate guidance for feeling the signs of a movement coming on. Baruzzi’s art is droll and graphically clean (inasmuch as the depiction of excrement can be described that way). Little fingers may need some help finding the relatively easy-to-open and sturdy pull-tabs, since they blend into each page. It works as both a biology lesson and potty-training encouragement.
A fun, new take on droppings. (Novelty board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66265-042-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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