Four children created the lively, magical artwork used for the endpapers; this book would charm if their art had been used...
A simple, rhythmic text describes accelerating and decelerating noises at different levels of a house.
The house itself is exciting, its pagodalike shape further accentuated by double-page spreads that read vertically instead of horizontally. The first spread introduces “an old lady” on the bottom floor, who looks less old than demented, with her flapping lips, crooked glasses, wild hair and toothy grin. Her “BIG wooden stick” goes “CLOMP! CLOMP! CLOMP!” in the bold text at the page’s bottom and in large lettering over her story’s rooftop. On the floors above hers, sets of eyes peer out of dark windows. With each successive page turn, the next floor up features another grotesquely drawn occupant who reacts to the noise underneath with a new noise: A dog woofs, a cat meows, a baby wails, birds squawk. Each page also reveals a different, cluttered room in the old lady’s house and, inexplicably, a large line of spiders roaming about the lawn. The climax is appropriately noisy, and readers who make it to the end will enjoy the sly twist that arrives after all the noises have gradually died down.
Four children created the lively, magical artwork used for the endpapers; this book would charm if their art had been used throughout. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84507-983-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name.
A brief rhyming board book for toddlers.
Spurr's earlier board books (In the Garden and At the Beach, both 2012; In the Woods, 2013) featured an adventuresome little boy. Her new slice-of-life story stars an equally joyful little girl who takes pleasure in flying a new kite while not venturing far off the walkway. Oliphant's expressive and light-filled watercolors clearly depict the child's emotions—eager excitement on the way to the park, delight at the kite's flight in the wind, shock when the kite breaks free, dejection, and finally relief and amazement. The rhymes work, though uneven syllable counts in some stanzas interrupt the smooth flow of the verse. The illustrations depict the child with her mass of windblown curls, brown skin, and pronounced facial features as African-American. Her guardian (presumably her mother) is also brown-skinned. It is refreshing to see an African-American family settled comfortably in a suburban setting with single-family homes and a park where the family dog does not need to be leashed.
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56145-854-7
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon.
This bedtime book offers simple rhymes, celebrates the numbers one through 10, and encourages the counting of objects.
Each double-page spread shows a different toddler-and-caregiver pair, with careful attention to different skin tones, hair types, genders, and eye shapes. The pastel palette and soft, rounded contours of people and things add to the sleepy litany of the poems, beginning with “Goodnight, one fork. / Goodnight, one spoon. / Goodnight, one bowl. / I’ll see you soon.” With each number comes a different part in a toddler’s evening routine, including dinner, putting away toys, bathtime, and a bedtime story. The white backgrounds of the pages help to emphasize the bold representations of the numbers in both written and numerical forms. Each spread gives multiple opportunities to practice counting to its particular number; for example, the page for “four” includes four bottles of shampoo and four inlaid dots on a stool—beyond the four objects mentioned in the accompanying rhyme. Each home’s décor, and the array and types of toys and accoutrements within, shows a decidedly upscale, Western milieu. This seems compatible with the patronizing author’s note to adults, which accuses “the media” of indoctrinating children with fear of math “in our country.” Regardless, this sweet treatment of numbers and counting may be good prophylaxis against math phobia.
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93378-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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