Little readers learn about cats.
All sorts of cats are on display in this board book. The text employs dialogic reading, an interactive practice wherein little ones are encouraged to answer questions the book poses and apply these interactions to their real lives. “What were they doing?” the text asks in reference to cats seen in a preceding spread. “Napping? / Purring? / Rooarrring?” Individual readers’ enjoyment may vary, and caregivers might find themselves straining to supply the missing words in the introductory picture of a cat napping in a lap, captioned “Lap ____. Cat ____.” The illustrations are sweet, however. Feline friends are presented in all shapes and colors, mostly house cats, but a tiger appears a couple of times and the last pages of the board book include a lion and a leopard. The critters are displayed against warm purple, green, and blue backgrounds, making the white, yellow, and orange cats pop all the more. Although the exercise feels a little forced, it does provide caregivers with a model for practicing dialogic reading when sharing other books with their little ones.
Despite the title, cats are not the main event in this book, but they help the lesson go down. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-936669-58-5
Page Count: 14
Publisher: blue manatee press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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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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A troop of cats traverse a spooky landscape as they make their way to a party hosted by ghosts.
Each double-page spread shows the felines’ encounters with the likes of an owl, jack-o’-lanterns or a bat. One or two of these creepy meetings may be too abstract for the youngest readers, as the cats hear eerie noises with no discernible source on the page. The text, which consists of one rhyming couplet per scene, mostly scans despite a couple of wobbles: “Five black cats get a bit of a scare / As the flip-flapping wings of a bat fill the air.” The sleek, slightly retro art, likely created using a computer, depicts the cats cavorting at night through a shadowy cityscape, the countryside and a haunted house; they may scare some toddlers and delight others. A brighter color palette would have given the project a friendlier, more universal appeal. Luckily, the well-lit, final party scene provides a playful conclusion.
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-611-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS
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