With tracing, flaps, rhymed text, and farm scenes, there is an awful lot going on, and adult readers may wish to skim some...
Down on the farm, little fingers can trace shapes and open flaps.
On every other double-page spread, readers are encouraged to trace a variety of lines debossed into the board pages. Below the tracing feature, youngsters can lift a flap and locate the same pattern just painted in an image beneath. On the following double-page spread, these traceable lines appear again in the context of a larger farm scene. For example, readers can trace a zigzag line. Underneath, kids can locate the zigzag pattern on the jagged edge of the chick’s shell, and, below the flap, the zigzag appears again in a pattern on a dog’s collar. All of this is repeated on the next double-page spread, and this time, readers can draw the zigzag in the chick’s shell in a busy scene. Often forced rhyming couplets accompany the illustrations, instructing readers to trace this or that pattern; with the dotted lines showing the direction to trace, these directions feel superfluous. The variety of shapes for tracing will be helpful for little ones engaging in pre-writing activities, particularly traceable circles, loops, zigzags, and straight lines. Youngsters will enjoy the final spread, featuring a tractor’s long trail for readers to follow.
With tracing, flaps, rhymed text, and farm scenes, there is an awful lot going on, and adult readers may wish to skim some elements to keep from overwhelming children . (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58925-220-2
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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