Make some noise at storytime with this book.
A look at sounds throughout the day.
The book opens with the child who is depicted on the cover, a child of color with brown skin and black hair, asleep in bed while a white-appearing man knocks on the bedroom door and a yellow bird sings outside. Accompanying, rhyming text reads, “LISTEN! DO YOU HEAR A SOUND? / NOISES COME FROM ALL AROUND.” Subsequent pages show the child getting up and starting the day while sounds of the man, who seems to be his father, cooking breakfast, washing dishes, etc. surround him. Then the child walks to school with a woman of color who appears to be mom, and they encounter new noises outside. The school day, which includes a field trip to a concert, is filled with sounds too, and the students are a diverse group with differing skin and hair colors. Throughout, Miller’s cartoon art concentrates on making sound visible. The vibrant, multicolored palette alone looks loud, and musical notes on the page, along with colors and lines emanating from instruments, pounding hammers, and so on, graphically represent various sounds described by the text. Pages are visually noisy, compositions crowded and exuberant. The child returns home at book’s end to settle down as the closing text reads, “NO MORE NOISES. NOT A PEEP. EVERYONE IS SOUND ASLEEP” (here, perhaps, readers will wish the otherwise appropriately all-caps text were not shouting quite so loud).
Make some noise at storytime with this book. (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3156-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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