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BIBLE ANIMALS

Name: BIBLE ANIMALS
Author: Sally Beets
ISBN: 978-1-4654-8015-6

From the Baby Touch and Feel series

by Sally Beets ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 2018

Winning photos but unsatisfyingly small touch-and-feel elements.

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An introduction to a menagerie of animals found in the Bible, with tactile swatches embedded in the pages, for the littlest readers.

Most of the images are clear photos set, in signature DK fashion, against a white or solid color background. Each animal—an ox, a camel and calf, a lion, a sheep, and more—is captioned with a black sans-serif lowercase label, and a small textural feature, often less than a square inch, is set into the page. The whale has a bit of blue-gray vinyl on its tail, and the donkey has a blue fabric blanket. A few creatures, such as the lamb and the dove, appear with embossed textural elements (shiny hay, feathers) instead of embedded fabrics. For no apparent reason, the shiny foil image of the fish is not a photo but rather the only graphic representation in the book. Biblically literate grown-ups will recognize that these animals appear in the Bible, but there is no quote or verse notation to locate them.

Winning photos but unsatisfyingly small touch-and-feel elements. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4654-8015-6

Page Count: 14

Publisher: DK Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S RELIGION

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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I LIKE THE FARM

From the I Like To Read series

by Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2017

Simple, encouraging text, charming photographs, straightforward, unpretentious diversity, and adorable animals—what’s not to...

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This entry-level early reader/picture book pairs children with farm animals.

Using a simple, effective template—a full-page photograph on the recto page and a bordered spot photo above the text on the verso—Rotner delivers an amiable picture book that presents racially and ethnically diverse kids interacting (mostly in the cuddling department) with the adult and baby animals typically found on a farm. Chickens, chicks, cats, kittens, dogs, puppies, pigs, piglets, cows, and calves are all represented. While a couple of double-page spreads show the larger adult animals—pigs and cows—without a child, most of the rest portray a delighted child hugging a compliant critter. The text, simple and repetitive, changes only the name for the animal depicted in the photo on that spread: “I like the cat”; “I like the piglet.” In this way, reading comprehension for new readers is supported in an enjoyable, appealing way, since the photo of the animal reinforces the new word. It’s hard to go wrong combining cute kids with adorable animals, but special kudos must be given for the very natural way Rotner has included diversity—it’s especially gratifying to see diversity normalized and validated early, at the same time that reading comprehension is taught.

Simple, encouraging text, charming photographs, straightforward, unpretentious diversity, and adorable animals—what’s not to like? (Picture book/early reader. 2-6)