Setting aside the repetitive text, this one is worth picking up for the rich, absorbing illustrations of lesser-known...
Insects and animals that feature prominent spots, spikes, and spirals are depicted in vibrant watercolor.
This board book comes from the team behind Dot, Stripe, Squiggle (2018), and similarly, it’s also all in the name. It opens with a series of three progressions of the words, “Spot / Spike / Spiral,” each featured on its own two-page spread, matched with an insect or animal featuring one of those three descriptors. Tuttle’s text is basic and simple, with only slight changes thanks to some ellipses, exclamation points, and arbitrary-feeling capitalization. Nerlove’s incredibly rich and detailed watercolor illustrations drive all of the reader interest. Though the pages appear sparse and the illustrations are shown on a starkly contrasting, all-white background, they encourage readers to linger and look. There is so much to absorb and study: the depth of color variation in the blue poison dart frog’s skin and the tiny fly capturing its attention, the gorgeous rainbow of color and pattern on the lanternfly. The last two pages show each animal or insect and its complete name—a nice touch and certainly necessary for curious young readers.
Setting aside the repetitive text, this one is worth picking up for the rich, absorbing illustrations of lesser-known animals and insects. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-56846-333-9
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Don’t judge this book by its cover; there’s an unusual concept and whimsical illustrations hiding underneath
A series of solid shapes substitute for natural objects in this board book that is somewhere between concept book and riddle game.
What’s that shape supposed to be? Running across a rust-brown labeled triangle, amid trees and elk, the text “Climb a TRIANGLE to the top” suggests the shape is a mountain; in an ocean scene with a red “STAR washed in on the waves,” the shape implies a sea star. Ample visual cues give young readers enough context to guess what the shape evokes, with some unexpected touches, such as “HEXAGON” printed on hexagonal honeycombs buzzing with bees and surrounded by golden flowers. Short, commanding sentences keep things humming, but with only six shapes covered, the book feels all too brief. Illustrator Devernay combines delicate pencil line drawings and sketchy gray-black shading with tiny, meticulously cut colored-paper collage to create her plants and animals. The most intimate drawings amaze. Close-ups of smooth stones are so appealing that readers will long to pick one up and “rub a smooth OVAL between thumb and finger.” Sadly, the cover doesn’t do the interior justice, and things get murky when several hues mix there and on the final spread. But on other spreads, where there’s a single color, it pops against the gray, such as the minute yellow beaks on the flock of charcoal birds circling the yellow “CIRCLE” sun.
Don’t judge this book by its cover; there’s an unusual concept and whimsical illustrations hiding underneath . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-56846-317-9
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BLOG
A fun, new take on droppings.
Youngsters can learn about where and how various animals, domestic and wild, relieve themselves.
Via a pull-tab embedded in each recto (not, thankfully, in the rectum) readers can see the before and after, and a goldfish in a bowl leaves a trail while swimming. The verso asks each creature where it does its business, and then a (sometimes-forced) rhyming quatrain, translated from Italian, answers the question: “And where do YOU poop, mouse? / When inside my tummy / Starts to feel not so good / It’s time for a poop / On these chips made of wood!” The final double-page spread queries readers: “And where do YOU poop?” A redheaded, White toddler’s face is visible below this question; the pull-tab on the right opens a bathroom to reveal a White toddler, this time with medium brown hair, happily and modestly sitting on a blue toddler potty. The accompanying quatrain provides some developmentally appropriate guidance for feeling the signs of a movement coming on. Baruzzi’s art is droll and graphically clean (inasmuch as the depiction of excrement can be described that way). Little fingers may need some help finding the relatively easy-to-open and sturdy pull-tabs, since they blend into each page. It works as both a biology lesson and potty-training encouragement.
A fun, new take on droppings. (Novelty board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66265-042-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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