Not sleepy? Then grab your ticket to the ride of a lifetime.
Young railroad enthusiasts with a reluctance for bedtime will heartily embrace this gentle trip on the ultimate animal train line. A small, Asian-presenting child reaches from a locomotive-shaped bed to snatch a ticket from the air, which spirits them to a train where “wild things await,” quite literally. Whether it’s the toucan ticket taker, the elephant working the engines, or the warthog waiters in the dining car, there’s something to enjoy around every corner. And after all the delights have been sampled, the train drops the child off, safe and sound, at home with a final “Good night, good night, Moonlight Train!” Won infuses her art with lighthearted, luminous energy. There is the titular moonlight, certainly, but also starlight, the light of hot coals, and cozy interior lamplight. Sharp-eyed spotters will enjoy finding the animals strewn about the child’s bedroom that show up on the train and its line at various times. Rhyming text maintains a regular rhythm in keeping with a chugging nighttime train. Every four-line stanza, with the exception of the last, ends with the call “All aboard the Moonlight Train!”—and sleepytime readers will be hankering to obey.
Part zoo, part train, all bedtime. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-64543-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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A hefty board book filled with ruminations on the nature of love.
While love is the topic of this board book, it’s the inventive gatefolds and charmingly vintage illustrations that readers will fall for. Brimming with sweeping declarations along the lines of “Love is / strong. // You have my back and I’ll always have yours,” the text sounds like a series of greeting cards strung together. It’s benign enough, but are most toddlers interested in generic proclamations about love? Some statements, like the ones on “unsinkable” hippos or a panda parent holding a cub “steady,” could introduce new vocabulary. At least there’s plenty of winsome critters to fawn over as the surprisingly sturdy flaps tell dramatic little ministories for each cartoon-style animal species. A downcast baby giraffe looks longingly up at a too-high tasty branch; lift a flap to bring an adult giraffe—and the delicacy—down to the baby, or watch an adventurous young fox retreat into a fold-down–flap burrow to learn that “my heart will always be home with you.” At points, the pages are tricky to turn in the correct order, but clever touches, like a series of folds that slow readers down to a sloth’s speed, make up for it. The book concludes with a gatefold revealing a vibrant playground populated with racially and ethnically diverse humans; two are wheelchair users.
Fun format; bland text. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3153-2
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS
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