Despite flaws, valuable practice at a crucial skill.
Young children get plenty of practice identifying 12 key emotions in this interactive question-and-answer book.
Readers follow 10 characters (three ethnically diverse humans, a robot, and six anthropomorphic animals) throughout a day as they wake up, go to school, swim, have lunch, take a trip to the farm, celebrate a birthday, and get ready for bed. Each double-page spread presents readers with five questions about how the characters are feeling; children must scan the illustrations to find the answers: “Who is HAPPY with their new sweater?” “Who is EXCITED about breakfast?” Facial expressions, props, and other clues allow children to puzzle out the answers; there is no answer key nor any note to parents. Jarvis’ illustrations are brightly colored cartoons against white backgrounds. In some cases, the details do not stand out enough for children to immediately be sure of their answers, and in a few spreads, kids may not know what is going on without the clues provided by the questions: “Who is LAUGHING because of a food fight?” The 12 emotions presented are happy, sad, surprised, scared, angry, jealous, excited, shy, worried, embarrassed, upset, and laughing. This last is not an emotion; it’s used twice, and one of the questions is, “Who is LAUGHING at someone’s swimsuit?” (OK, the robot with trunks on its head is pretty funny.) The small trim size and detailed pictures make this a book to share one on one.
Despite flaws, valuable practice at a crucial skill. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84780-842-4
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.”
The cover’s glowing golden stars are but a small hint of the parent-child love inside.
In this companion book to the creators’ I Love You, My Little Unicorn (2022), a world full of digitally created dinosaurs illustrated in eye-catching colors dominates the pages. From the start, it’s clear that dinosaur parents have the same hopes and dreams for their offspring that human parents do. Readers don’t have to be dinosaur fans to smile when the parent-and-child dinosaur pairs playfully interact and share loving glances. Take special note of the ankylosauruses, whose tails arc to form a heart beneath a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds. The text in verse shares words of unconditional parental love and support and wisdom (“please remember all these things / that I want you to know”), appropriate for humans and dinos alike. “Roar with all your might!” “Spread your wings and fly.” “Use your voice, and ask for help.” There’s even a caveat that some “days will be dark / and other shades of gray.” But “there’s always brightness up ahead.” While the loving sentiments in the storytelling are clear, words are sometimes inverted to make the rhyme work, and the verse doesn’t always follow a consistent meter, but prereading will let the story shine during quiet snuggle times.
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728268361
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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