Count up to 10 and back again with a mother and daughter as they ride the rumbling subway.
Husband-and-wife author team Jacobs and Swender are both counting and subway veterans (Nascar 1-2-3s, 2008) and (My Subway Ride, 2004), but this time they have combined the two. In short, staccato bursts, with a snappy beat, Momma and daughter take a subway ride, counting all the way. “6 empty seats, sit right down. / 7 more stops, going uptown. // Big Apple subway, 8 cars long. / 9 people off, 10 people on.” The numbers in the text are cleverly designed; they look like the same circles found on New York City’s transit signs. Savvy New York City kids will notice the colors don’t correspond with the correct numbered subway lines—forgivable artistic license, as it allows for a nice variety of colors, and there’s not a real-world line for each number. Happily, though, the path taken is absolutely a plausible trip! Yaccarino’s loose-limbed riders sway with the rush of the train, and the joyful smiles make this excursion all the more fun—especially the hidden art from previous books tucked in various corners.
A simple concept done with clean, commendable style. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-307-97923-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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SEEN & HEARD
A chunky board book about colors features photographs of dogs and incorporates many interactive elements.
Even the front cover of this title is interactive. Pull a large red tab, and a bulldog’s head moves back and forth as he chews on the shoelace of a red tennis shoe. Inside, further interactive features, rhyming text, and illustrations featuring cute pups and their adorable antics await. For example, the orange pages offer a collage of pumpkins, autumn foliage, puppies, and a cat, reading: “Orange the patch of pumpkins, / Orange the autumn leaves, / Orange the frumpy, napping cat… / that I chase up a tree.” One of the pumpkins is a flap that conceals the face of a precious pup, and another, larger flap hides a pop-up tree branch on which an orange kitty perches. Other pages incorporate some more noxious surprises, such as: “Green the swamp I love to swim in, / Green the summer grass, / Green the color of the air… / when my dog food gives me gas.” Pull the tab here to trigger a large green cloud that emanates from the back end of a suitably embarrassed-looking basset hound.
This ambitious, interactive exploration of color will be of particular appeal to dog lovers. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4986-1
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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