Skip A Day at the Farm. A Day at the Beach is worth considering for counting practice, especially since it goes all the way...
A counting book from one to 20, featuring Starla the starfish.
Starla counts everything she sees: clownfish, clouds, kids in inner tubes, sandwiches, sand toys, seashells, and more. Each page (or double-page spread for the larger numbers) includes a large numeral on the left, brightly colored items to count, and a simple sentence in large type at the bottom of the page. “Starla has sixteen new octopus friends. / Seventeen kites fly in the wind.” Companion title A Day at the Farm introduces each letter of the alphabet with a sentence that includes multiple words that feature that letter. While the counting title is appealing and effective in its simplicity, the alphabet book, which sets out to showcase each letter by framing it with a farm-related scene or chore, suffers from some odd choices that lend it a haphazard air. The (notoriously difficult) letter X is particularly puzzling for an audience just beginning to learn its alphabet: “The excited fox piles fruit next to a box.” For Y, the text “Farmer Al makes yellow yarn” is paired with an image that makes it look as though the farmer somehow plucked several skeins of yellow yarn from a white sheep.
Skip A Day at the Farm. A Day at the Beach is worth considering for counting practice, especially since it goes all the way to 20 when most board books stop at five or 10. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4114-7588-5
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside.
Readers can count down eight of Santa's reindeer as they jump up and out of the scene.
In each one of the mostly double-page spreads, one reindeer, from Dasher to Blitzen, plays a central role in a winter activity (sledding, ski jumping, ice skating—and soccer and yoga?) that launches the creature into the air. Glitter-speckled tabs, each with small portraits of a member of Santa's herd, appear at either the top or the right side of each page, which little fingers will enjoy flipping. In what looks to be pencil-and-watercolor cartoons, Rogers uses different facial expressions, as well as collars, bows or other accessories, to distinguish the reindeer from one another. Donner (not Donder) and Blitzen are squeezed together on the penultimate spread, likely to keep the page count down. The verse mostly scans, but the rhyme scheme has become the cliché of counting books: "Eight jolly reindeer / stretching up to heaven. / Up goes Dasher / and then there are... // Seven...." Santa, his iconic sleigh and the eight reindeer in flight make a dramatic and required appearance on the book's final double-page spread.
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-65145-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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