With short facts about pigs, chickens, cattle, horses and more, there is just enough to be of interest to the youngest...
This introduction to farm life includes a cover of layered, bubble-shaped pages of various sizes, each with an image of a farm animal peeking through.
Once a page is turned, bright stock photos of livestock, working animals and even the farmer appear in the inside. A heading introduces them (such as “In the field” for the page about sheep), and one or two simple facts are shared (“Woolly sheep roam the grassy fields”). The creatures themselves provide additional and more specific information via speech bubbles (“A baby sheep is called a lamb,” a lamb confides). One section of each spread still retains the image that is visible from the cover and hints at what is coming next on the verso. This iteration of the Seek and Peek gimmick of shaped pages is more successful than others in the series such At the Zoo, In the Rainforest and Dinosaurs, with their confusing layouts. Here, the strong background color of each spread helps differentiate the information in question from the images of things to come. The last double-page spread shows a tractor and a combine harvester and shares a couple of tidbits about farmyard machinery. The novel format will make it difficult for spine-out shelving in libraries and elsewhere.
With short facts about pigs, chickens, cattle, horses and more, there is just enough to be of interest to the youngest animal enthusiast. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6940-8
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Is this a nature book? Not really. But with beautiful young faces respecting living creatures, it is a great choice for...
With expressions of wonder and delight, little toddlers explore nature in its tiniest forms, seeing critters and flowers with the curiosity of new eyes.
McPike and Barton have created a companion book to their comforting bedtime read-aloud, Little Sleepyhead (2015). This outing repeats the same rhythmic couplets, bringing together the simplest of flora and fauna with a racially diverse group of toddlers. Barton uses digitized pencil sketches to capture the wide-eyed, breath-holding feeling of seeing a caterpillar for the first time. The children’s delight in the snails, bluebirds, and bunnies is a gentle introduction to quietly observing nature. "Little bitty chipmunks, chattering all the day / Little bitty ladybug always comes to play." (Here a ladybug crawls across a giggling toddler’s forehead.) The illustrations are open and breezy with white space, and the spare text printed in different colors keeps the focus simple. While the repeated phrase of "little bitty" provides a consistent thread from beginning to end, the uniqueness of every child is clear. Yet even the wide range of skin tones and hairstyles is secondary to the universal feeling of wonder.
Is this a nature book? Not really. But with beautiful young faces respecting living creatures, it is a great choice for toddler libraries. (Picture book. 1-3)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17255-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Put on those gardening gloves; the fruits of this labor beckon.
A young girl watches her garden grow.
Though she's a bit older than the typical board-book audience, her self-reliance makes her an appealing character for toddlers struggling to assert their independence. The strategic use of sturdy flaps provides both peekaboo fun and structure to the storyline. “Yellow daisy. / Red rose. / A bud blooms. / [lift flap] A flower grows.” Some of the interactive elements clearly connect objects to one another (shovel, pail), while other pairings review the progress of the blossoming outdoors. The child enjoys the results of her hard work (smelling a flower has never been so sweet) and waters her lush plants with her pint-sized watering can. Varied vocabulary extends the text. “Harvest carrots / . . . squash and peas. / [lift flap] Pollinated by the bees.” Perhaps due to their having been printed on recycled paper with soy inks, the matte sides of the flaps tend to be darker than the rest, which are glossy.
Put on those gardening gloves; the fruits of this labor beckon. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-93041-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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