A lovely read for welcoming a new baby and celebrating family bonds.
An older child shares in the joy of growing up alongside a younger sibling.
Cedella Marley utilizes the repeated refrain of Bob Marley’s song “Is This Love” to tell a story of sibling love. Readers first meet the sibling pair when the younger is a baby. As pages turn, we see the children grow. The older sibling plays the role of teacher, loyal and supportive, sharing activities such as building a blanket fort, riding bikes, and playing with blocks. The rhyming text expands on Marley’s lyrics and includes the famous lines “Is this love? Is this love that I’m feeling?” along with a few others from the song. The bold illustrations feature bright blues and deep purples with plenty of tropical touches. The family is drawn with deep brown skin and dark brown hair. A particularly stunning pair of layouts shows the siblings on the beach as the sun gives way to a sparkling night. The bright pinks fade into purple, dark blues, and black. Constellations of the children’s faces light up the starry sky. This palette is echoed on the final page, as the family builds a sandcastle beside their home in the day’s fading light. The themes of siblinghood—that treasured unique relationship—are familiar and comforting. Though it pays homage to Marley’s beloved music, the book welcomes all readers, not just his fans.
A lovely read for welcoming a new baby and celebrating family bonds. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9781452171739
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
The history of music is a big topic, and more-nuanced explanation is needed than the format allows.
This ambitious board book aims to promote an eclectic appreciation for music of all kinds.
Music, from drumming to computer-generated sound, is introduced as a linear historical sequence with two pages devoted to each of 11 styles, including medieval European, orchestral, blues, and more. Most of the musicians are portrayed as children, many with darker skin tones and with hairstyles and garb commonly associated with each type of music. Radford works in a retro cartoon mode, varying his presentation slightly with each new musical style but including a dancing dachshund on almost every spread, presumably to enhance child appeal. Unfortunately, the book just can’t succeed in reducing such a wide range of musical styles to toddler-appropriate language. The first two spreads read: “We start with clapping, tapping, and drums. // Lutes, flutes, and words are what we become.” The accompanying illustrations show, respectively, half-naked drummers and European court figures reading, writing, and playing a flute. Both spreads feature both brown-skinned and pale-skinned figures. At first reading this seems innocent enough, but the implication that clapping and drumming are somehow less civilized or sophisticated than a European style is reinforced in Stosuy’s glossary of music terms. He describes “Prehistoric Music” as “rhythmic music [made] with rocks, sticks, bones, and…voices,” while “Renaissance Music” is defined as “multiple melodies played at the same time.”
The history of music is a big topic, and more-nuanced explanation is needed than the format allows. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0941-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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