Picture Book Roundup - Fall 2019 requests

Here are three new books that have something for every young family and busy caregiver.

If you cannot see the slide show below, you can see it on Riffle [https://www.rifflebooks.com/list/296267]or read ALL of my reviews on my LibraryThing account.

 

• Thanks to Penguin Workshop for my review copy of Across the Bay by Carlos Aponte. A little boy in Puerto Rico misses his dad who lives "across the bay."
• Thanks to Silver Dolphin Books for my review copy of Margaret Wise Brown 5-Minute Stories by Margaret Wise Brown.Eight stories by a beloved author are collected in one book designed for reading in 5-minute increments. 
• Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons for my review copy of Five Minutes (That's a lot of time) (No, it's not) (Yes, it is) by Liz Garton and Audrey Vernick.A little boy comes to understand that the length of five minutes is highly subjective. 

More images and "look-ins" below.

An image from Margaret Wise Brown 5-Minute Stories ©

An image from Margaret Wise Brown 5-Minute Stories ©

The Bat Can Bat - a review

The Bat Can Bat: A True Book of Homonyms
By Gene Barretta
Christy Ottaviano, 2018

Below is my review of The Bat Can Bat as is appeared in School Library Journal.

BARRETTA, Gene. illus. by Gene Barretta. 40p. Holt/Christy Ottaviano Bks. Feb. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780805099461.

Gr 2-4–Sports and animals are perennially popular, and Baretta uses them as the common denominator in this collection of illustrated homonyms. It begins with the easily understood “The bat can bat!” featuring a bat playing baseball, then progresses to more difficult examples. The font is simple, in black or white, depending on the background color of the full-bleed illustrations. The homonyms are printed in capital letters. The use of horizontal and vertical spreads is helpful in explaining the finer points of homonyms. One of the vertical illustrations features a two-tiered, high diving board—the top deck hosts an angry, red-faced rhino who is throwing a fit over the fit of his ridiculously tiny swimsuit. For comic relief, on the lower diving deck, a young girl casts a nervous glance upwards. A “Note to the Reader” includes useful definitions of homonyms, homophones, and homographs. VERDICT More concept book than storybook, this is a fundamental purchase for school libraries and public libraries with heavy educator usage.

See a preview of The Bat Can Bat at the Macmillan Publishers site.

School Library Journal. Feb2018, Vol. 64 Issue 2, p54-56. 2p.
Copyright © 2018 School Library Journal, the property of Media Source, Inc.  Reprinted here with permission.


My copy of The Bat Can Bat was provided by School Library Journal.

Everybody's Somewhere - a review

Everybody's Somewhere
by Cornelia Maude Spelman
Illustrated by Alea Marley
Quarto, 2017

Everybody's Somewhere is a rhyming concept book that explores a sense of self and place. Global in scope and culture, the cheerful artwork in bright but softly muted tones,shows a wide variety of children and adults from a wide variety of settings and locations—a city, a farm, a person in a wheelchair, campers, a soldier, and more.

Each of us is somewhere
Here or there.

Each of us is someone
In our own somewhere.

This is a fine choice for storytime. (Read it first so as not to stumble over the rhyme.)




My copy of Everybody's Somewhere was provided by the publisher at my request.  It will be donated to the preschool where I read it this morning. The teacher was quite taken with it and loved the illustrations. 😊 The kids enjoyed it, too!

One Cheetah, One Cherry - a review

One Cheetah, One Cherry: A Book of Beautiful Numbers

Jackie Morris

Otter-Barry Books

My review as it appeared in School Library Journal:

 PreS –A simple animal counting book with a regal air. Each number is represented on a spread featuring a single type of animal, with dogs and mice being the only household varieties. In an interesting juxtaposition, the animals are lifelike and stately, yet playfully attired or engaged. Pandas sport “pretty painted parasols,” tigers play “pat-a-cake,” and mice sip from tiny china teacups. The subdued, earthy watercolor tones are accurate for each species, but the settings and attire have a hint of majesty as a result of the addition of gold leaf and a repeated paisley background motif, often in purple. Also adding a degree of opulence is a rich, mottled ochre color suggesting marble. No seeking or finding is necessary; the animals are large in scale and neatly arrayed for easy counting. White border space on the bottom of each page provides the location for simple, descriptive text that is sometime alliterative, sometimes loosely rhymed: “Two dogs, two balls, one big, one small.” Endpapers offer further opportunities for counting and contain the only numerical representations of the numbers one through 10. VERDICT A unique, artistic addition to the counting canon.

My review copy was provided by School Library Journal

Stanley's Opposites and Stanley's Numbers - a review

Let me just say that I continue to be a fan of Stanley books by William Bee.  The latest are Stanley's Opposites and Stanley's Numbers from Peachtree (2017).  You'll find these on a shelf near you this fall.

These colorful books are everything one wants in a board book—bright colors, simplicity, simple concepts, minimal text.

If you're interested, Stanley has a new fan page.

You can read my other reviews of Stanley books here:

• Stanley's Store
• Stanley's Shapes
• Stanley's Colors
• Stanley the Farmer 

Thanks to Peachtree Publishers for my review copies.  I'm passing them along to tiny relatives ASAP.😃

Picture Book Roundup - August 2016

I haven't done a picture book roundup in a while. Here are a few favorites that passed my desk in August.  They're presented in the Riffle slideshow below.

Note:
Some of my reviews would not fit in their entirety in the slideshow.  You can find the full reviews on my LibraryThing or Riffle accounts.

Stanley's Shapes and Stanley's Colors - a review

In 2015, I reviewed the new picture book, Stanley the Farmer by William Bee, declaring it (among other things) "a perfect choice for very young listeners."  So when I had an opportunity to review upcoming Peachtree Publishers titles, I was happy to take a look at Stanley's entries into the board book series.  I was not disappointed.


Stanley's Shapes by William Bee
Peachtree Publishers, 2016

William Bee's illustrations are crisp, bright and simple. In Shapes, he ensures that the featured shape on each double-spread page is easy for children to discern, outlined heavily in black.   There are 8 shapes in all, and each one is something that should be easily recognizable for a child.  A tent is a triangle, a window is a square, bike wheels are circles, a kite is a diamond, etc. Text is minimal for each shape,

Wheeeeeeee! Circles make the best wheels!

Preceding the simple, black text is a white outline of the featured shape.  The final spread is an illustration that contains all of the shapes,

What a lot of shapes! How many can you see?

Stanley's Shapes is exactly what a concept board book should be.


Stanley's Colors by William Bee
Peachtree Publishers, 2016

Like Stanley's Shapes, Stanley's Colors is a perfectly simple, child-sized, concept board book.  There are eight featured colors on double-spread pages.  The background is white, except for a colored banner on the bottom.  The colored banner contains the simple black text,

Choo Choo!  Here is Stanley driving his purple train.

and matches the color in the illustration.  Almost everything in the image is purple with the exception of Stanley, and a few small accents.  Black outlining ensures clarity.

If you're looking for a color concept book for very young kids, this is a great choice.


Look for these books in September, 2016.

A note on board books:
I don't usually review board books because I am often disappointed in them.  In my opinion, board books should be exactly like these books, however, in recent years, it seems as if too many of them are just retreads of popular picture books.  They're often too big, too text heavy, too complicated.  If you're shopping for board books for your collection, or your own child, keep it simple!


Note:
Review copies were provided by the publisher at my request.

Infinity and Me - an audiobook review

Although I reviewed a print version of Infinity and Me book several years ago (my original review is linked here), I recently had the opportunity to review the audio version for School Library Journal.  My review as it appeared in the February, 2016, edition of SLJ is below.

HOSFORD, Kate. Infinity and Me. 1 CD w/tr book. 44 min. Live Oak Media. 2015. $29.95. ISBN 9781430120049.

K-Gr 3—A small girl, Uma, ponders infinity while gazing at stars, “How many stars were in the sky? A million? A billion? Maybe the number was as big as infinity.” Uma proceeds to ask friends and family how they conceive of infinity. They define it in quantities of numbers, time, music, ancestors—even spaghetti! Finally, she settles on her own measure of infinity, quantified in something that is personal and boundless. Narrator Nancy Wu is accompanied by a full cast of characters, music, and sound effects that complement the text and the book’s full-bleed, painted illustrations by Gabi Swiatkowska. Background sound effects include a bicycle bell, the “tinkling” of stars, chattering voices, and churning gears. A sense of wonder is embodied in Wu’s narration, the illustrations, and the overall production. The audiobook contains two tracks, one with page turn signals and one without. VERDICT This is an intriguing introduction to a mathematical concept, perfect for those seeking to inspire very young people to wonder about math and science. [“This quiet jewel is sure to spark contemplation and conversation": SLJ 10/12 review of the Carolrhoda book.]

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Copyright © 2016 Library Journals, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.
Reprinted with permission.

If - a review

If... A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers by David J. Smith.

If you're familiar with If the World Were a Village (also from Kids Can Press), then you'll understand the context in which If introduces large concepts. Take "Your Life," for example.

On a two-page spread, a large Sicilian-style pizza is depicted on a table surrounded by several happy children and one salivating dog,

If your whole life could be shown as a jumbo pizza, divided into 12 slices ...
4 slices would be the time you spend in school or at work
1 slice would be spent shopping, caring for others and doing things around home
4 slices would be the time you spend getting ready to sleep and sleeping,

etc., until all twelve slices have been accounted for.

Other concepts featured are:

•  "Inventions Through Time" - depicted on a 36" measuring tape
•  "Our Galaxy" - presented on a dinner plate
•  "Water" - represented by 100 water glasses
•  and 12 others 

In each case, care is taken to equate the concept to something with which children will be familiar.   This is a great way to place an intangible concept into a simple object that a child can hold within her hand.

Suggested for grades 3 - 6.  See an interior preview of If at the publisher's website. 

Today is STEM Friday.  You can see other posts at the STEM Friday blog.

It's STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Copyright © 2014 L Taylor All Rights Reserved.

Just a Second: A different way to look at time - a review

Jenkins, Steve. 2011. Just a Second: A different way to look at time. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

What can happen in a second?

Earth advances 18 1/2 miles (30 kilometers) in its orbit around the sun.

What can happen in a day?

People use the equivalent of 200 billion sheets of letter-size paper.

In a year?

A termite queen will lay almost 3,000,000 eggs.

With his trademark illustrative style, customary accuracy, and imaginative perspective, Steve Jenkins shows us the concept of time through a variety of aspects.  From the briefest second in which a cheetah can sprint 100 feet, to the unfathomable span of 2,000,000,000 years that it would take a spacecraft to traverse our galaxy, Jenkins offers illustrated facts, charts and graphs that are sure to interest kids of all ages. Facts are presented in white text on colorful pages, accompanied by cut paper illustrations.For teachers, it is a cross-curricular treasure trove. Highly recommended.

Included are books for additional reading and a note about the use of credible estimations for certain facts (e.g., the number of babies born each day).

Other reviews @:

• Publisher's Weekly
• A Year of Reading

This week's STEM Friday roundup is at Dig This Well.