Blandly pleasant; entirely skippable.
Precious, nursery-style animals and plants decorate the pages of five classic religious adages.
In this hodgepodge collection, Magsamen illustrates childhood prayers with her traditional faux quilting style, featuring candy-colored pastel tones, too-sentimental cartoon animals, and grinning suns, moons, and flowers. There’s a strong heart theme throughout, with a heart-shaped nose on a lamb and similarly shaped birds’ wings. It’s cute but almost entirely generic. Some of the traditional sayings, such as “God made the sun,” are re-created verbatim; others are expanded or altered, as when “I see the moon and the moon sees me” receives additional lines about kissing “nighty-night.” None of these additions adds much to the original, and most have a meter that sounds just a little off. The poems are written in thin, hand-written white letters that don’t always have enough contrast to be seen easily against the background, and the occasional colorfully highlighted and patterned words cramp the page. The simultaneously publishing ’Twas the Night Before Christmas! is purely derivative, with alterations that drastically truncate and remove all the character of the original poem. It reads aloud poorly, particularly to ears accustomed to the original. Both share a tall, narrow trim size that is somewhat unwieldy to hold with a child in the lap.
Blandly pleasant; entirely skippable. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35981-7
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Satisfactory text; irresistibly delightful illustrations.
A bedtime-prayer board book features a family of badgers.
Speaking in a gentle rhyme, the badgers ask for God’s blessings for family and friends and offer gratitude for the gifts of the natural world. Temple’s stanzas have a lullaby lilt to them, with a cadence that remains consistent throughout. With the exception of the first and last stanzas, which are voiced by the older badgers, the little badger relates the text. The accompanying images show the little badger remembering how much there is to be thankful for, from loved ones like grandparents to the moon and stars. It’s Braun’s illustrations that truly speak to little readers. The badger family is adorable; the softness and simplicity of their features are charming. The same is true of the other woodland creatures and animals. A wintry scene stands out from the rest thanks to the feelings of frostiness and wonder it evokes. There’s the little badger wrapped in a red scarf, nose to the sky, and a tiny mouse leaning on a walking stick, the soft snow floating down around them. Other details, like a lemonade bottle tucked in a picnic basket and a toy boat with a leaf sail, add depth and interest to the scenes.
Satisfactory text; irresistibly delightful illustrations. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68010-632-9
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pasquali’s talents deserve better than this erratically applied gimmick.
Santa Claus makes a few deliveries on Christmas Eve.
In droll double-page paintings, which look to be acrylics in rich, warm colors, a cheerful Santa flies his sleigh and whooshes down the chimney. Each page is embedded with a “finger-trail” (created by cutting out the top portion of the page to make an indentation and reveal a layer of patterned paper underneath) for little ones to trace the path of Santa’s flying sleigh or the reindeers’ footprints in the snow. Out of all Pasquali’s books that use the finger-trail gimmick, this one is the most effective, and the colorful touch-and-feel elements lend themselves to Santa’s annual nocturnal journey. Unfortunately, not all of the footprints have been cut away, resulting in a frustrating inconsistency for an audience that can least tolerate it. The workmanlike prose describes the scenes, while action and onomatopoeic words (“plod,” “whoosh” and “tip-toe”) accompany the finger-trail feature.
Pasquali’s talents deserve better than this erratically applied gimmick. (Board book. 18 mo.-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7459-6242-9
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Trafalgar Square
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
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