Gorgeous images that capture one’s attention, along with entertaining text.
This animal-focused picture book illustrates the alphabet with vibrantly colored mosaics of glass tile, pebbles, and other materials.
Many abecedarian books use animal names to teach letters, so it takes something special to stand out from the crowd. Caseley (The Kissing Diary, 2007, etc.) achieves that with beautifully constructed mosaics illustrating each letter and its corresponding animal. “E for Elephant,” for example, depicts a gray-tusked pachyderm against a richly colored background of blue sky and bright red, yellow, orange, and blue flowers, with lush greenery. The elephant’s trunk sprays alternating lines of blue-and-white and flower mosaic tiles in joyful profusion. Although the book mostly devotes one page to each letter, the elephant, appropriately enough, takes up a full two pages. As with all the pictures, a decorative border surrounds it—this one has alternating squares of pink and yellow. The text begins with a large mosaic “E,” festooned with shimmering tesserae; the whole entry reads: “E is for elephant, / biggest and best. / With big ears and a trunk, / it’s so hard to get dressed!” As throughout, the rhyme helps make the text memorable, and its silliness suits the mood of a children’s book. Although Caseley doesn’t include lowercase letters in the large entry headers, the text does depict them (“E is for elephant”). The ABCB rhymed quatrains usually describe a single letter, while others are spread across two: “Q is for quetzal, / who looks like a parrot. / R is for rabbit, / how it loves / a carrot!” Some vocabulary may be challenging for young children, such as “primate,” “foe,” or “nocturnal.” But more importantly, each page rewards long gazing with beautiful detail, such as malachitelike, striped green tiles of lily pads, or a little bird riding atop a hippo.
Gorgeous images that capture one’s attention, along with entertaining text.Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9966422-9-3
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Full Cycle Publications, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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PERSPECTIVES
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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