Like food-truck fare, it goes down easily.
Frankie’s food truck makes the rounds every day of the week, mixing gastronomy with geometry in this interactive guide to the shapes of things to eat.
This volume serves up a tasty variety of vocabulary, including the days of the week, basic shapes, and various foodstuffs that young readers and their caregivers are invited to identify. Frankie is an undeniably cute kitten with an oversized head and a smile to match. He parks his food truck in the same spot every day of the week; the cityscape in the background never changes. The one thing that is dramatically different from day to day is the menu, organized around daily geometric themes: “Today is Monday, when Frankie serves squares.” This is not a jab at Frankie’s patrons; it describes his fare, served on the facing page on four empty-looking plates with square-shaped, flapped panels that open to reveal several delicious, square-shaped foods: waffles, toast, ravioli, and cheese. Triangles are Tuesday’s order of the day; three triangular flaps reveal slices of pizza, pie, and watermelon. A circular flap hides a doughnut; the text inside the flap reads, “Nope! No circles till tomorrow!” Frankie himself is rendered differently in each picture, but only slightly so; finding the differences from picture to picture may add an element of fun.
Like food-truck fare, it goes down easily. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0687-6
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Candlewick Entertainment
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.
Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2095-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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