MY FIRST BOXED SET

Name: MY FIRST BOXED SET
Author: Little Bee Books
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0327-3

by Little Bee Books ; illustrated by Maxine Davenport & Cindy Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 2016

This is fine for a baby shower but unsuitable for institutional settings, where the full-size versions would be a better...

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Four mini board books packaged in a box with four peek-through windows are actually just smaller reprints of individual titles in the My First series, originally published in 2015.

Shapes, counting, colors, and words are introduced with just five page turns in these 3-inch-square books. The spreads are uncluttered, most with just one image per page. In My First 123, a numeral and a corresponding number of foil dots occupy the verso, while objects to count are arranged on the recto. With just five spreads, the count ends with 5. My First Shapes follows the same format. A decorative star and heart are included instead of the more-common rectangle or oval. My First Colors includes most of the eight basic crayon colors but substitutes pink for black. The final spread repeats all eight colors. The choice of 10 words included in My First Words seems arbitrary: sun, car, ball, dog, cake, boat, cup, bird, bee, flower. Why not moon? cat? truck? All the images in these tiny volumes are reduced to their essences with bright graphics, patterns, and foil highlights.

This is fine for a baby shower but unsuitable for institutional settings, where the full-size versions would be a better value. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4998-0327-3

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Little Bee Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
IT'S YOUR YEAR, BABY RABBIT
by Little Bee Books ; illustrated by Ariel Hsu

- BOOK REVIEW
BABY PLAYS CHESS
by Little Bee Books ; illustrated by Glo Wan

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SMILE, POUT-POUT FISH

by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2014

An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.

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This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.

Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.

An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8

Page Count: 12

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WORRY-WORRY WHALE AND THE CLASSROOM JITTERS
by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna

- BOOK REVIEW
POUT-POUT FISH
by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna

- BOOK REVIEW
THE POUT-POUT FISH AND THE MAD, MAD DAY
by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna

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ALL ABOUT ME

From the Look & Learn series

by National Geographic ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 11, 2014

Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on...

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An exploration of the human body through colorful photos.

Every other double-page spread labels the individual parts on one major area: head, torso, back, arm and leg. Ethnically diverse boy-girl pairs serve as models as arrows point to specific features and captions float nearby. While the book usefully mentions rarely depicted body parts, such as eyebrow, armpit and shin, some of the directional arrows are unclear. The arrow pointing at a girl’s shoulder hits her in the upper arm, and the belly button is hard is distinguish from the stomach (both are concealed by shirts). Facts about the human body (“Guess what? You have tiny hairs in your nose that keep out dirt”) appear on alternating spreads along with photos of kids in action. Baby Animals, another title in the Look & Learn series, uses an identical format to introduce readers to seal pups, leopard cubs, elephant calves, ducklings and tadpoles. In both titles, the final spread offers a review of the information and encourages readers to match baby animals to their parents or find body parts on a photo of kids jumping on a trampoline.

Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on the right track despite earlier titles that were much too conceptual for the audience. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)