Delightful and engaging.
Preschoolers can follow a little brown mouse on its traveling adventures in this engaging color concept book.
As the book starts, a little mouse can be seen packing up her equally itty-bitty suitcase. Rhyming text with a wonderful read-aloud rhythm introduces readers to the little mouse’s street: “Red house / Blue house / Green house / Tree house! / See the tiny mouse / in her little brown house?” Clean-lined, colorful illustrations in Gómez’s signature style lead readers along: into a flower-filled garden; on a ride on a red city bus; in a potted windowsill plant attended by a child; on the curb where a group of people wait to cross a street; in an underwater scene with “one gigantic whale!”; and on a jolly ride that employs a string of vehicles. The little mouse is not mentioned again, making it easy for readers to forget it as they get caught up in the myriad delightful details of each illustration. No problem there. The book ends with “and did you spot that mouse?” This should send children back to the beginning, this time in earnest search of the little mouse and her itty-bitty suitcase. Should children need further enticement to read the book again, travel patches on the endpapers invite readers to match them to the relevant part in the story. The people depicted are diverse both racially as well as in physical ability.
Delightful and engaging. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55381-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
This is a tremendously moving story, but some people will be moved only on the second reading, after they’ve Googled “How to...
A hug shouldn’t require an instruction manual—but some do.
A porcupine can frighten even the largest animal. In this picture book, a bear and a deer, along with a small rabbit, each run away when they hear eight simple words and their name: “I need a hug. Will you cuddle me,…?” As they flee, each utters a definitive refusal that rhymes with their name. The repetitive structure gives Blabey plenty of opportunities for humor, because every animal responds to the question with an outlandish, pop-eyed expression of panic. But the understated moments are even funnier. Each animal takes a moment to think over the request, and the drawings are nuanced enough that readers can see the creatures react with slowly building anxiety or, sometimes, a glassy stare. These silent reaction shots not only show exquisite comic timing, but they make the rhymes in the text feel pleasingly subtle by delaying the final line in each stanza. The story is a sort of fable about tolerance. It turns out that a porcupine can give a perfectly adequate hug when its quills are flat and relaxed, but no one stays around long enough to find out except for an animal that has its own experiences with intolerance: a snake. It’s an apt, touching moral, but the climax may confuse some readers as they try to figure out the precise mechanics of the embrace.
This is a tremendously moving story, but some people will be moved only on the second reading, after they’ve Googled “How to pet a porcupine.” (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-29710-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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