A developmentally accurate model more likely to appeal to caregivers than its intended audience.
The titular genius models the process of language acquisition among the very young.
Koko, a trademark Wells gray-and-white bunny, has “an inbox behind [his] ears.” All day, every day, Koko’s parents and grandparents consciously “fill up that inbox” with words of love, songs, and rhymes. These words appear in boldface in the text and again as free-floating pictorial elements swirling around Koko on their way into his ears. In the lower-right-hand corner of every double-page spread, Wells positions an old-fashioned wooden letter tray in which all the words Koko hears stack up. “Everything Mama, Daddy, Gran, and Gramps said and sang zinged right into Koko’s inbox…until it was so full that all of a sudden…clickety-click ping! Koko’s outbox geared up and kicked in!” Here readers see both the teetering stack of words in Koko’s inbox and an outbox with Hello! in it. On subsequent pages, the inbox has been replaced with an outbox into which Koko’s growing expressive vocabulary piles up. As a metaphor aimed at adults, the book excels. As a story for children, it falls flat; the inbox imagery will likely go over little ones’ heads. Fans of Wells’ mischievous plotting will be disappointed, a final twist offering only thin gruel compared to the exploits of Ruby, Max, and Nora.
A developmentally accurate model more likely to appeal to caregivers than its intended audience. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781665943871
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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