concepts

Review: Hippopposites by Janik Coat

| Tasha

hippopposites

Hippopposites by Janik Coat

This clever board book takes a hippo and runs through a variety of opposite pairs with him.  There are light and dark hippos, dotted and striped hippos, soft and rough hippos, small and large hippos.  Then there are the more intriguing opposites like opaque and transparent, positive and negative, clear and blurry.  My favorite opposite pairing is the front and side, which made me laugh out loud with surprise.  Something that rarely happens with board books!  This is truly a modern, hip board book that will be enjoyed not only by young children but also their parents.

Coat makes this book dynamic and modern with her very solid graphic skills.  She has a wonderful quirky sense of humor that is on display throughout the book and that combined with the strength of the simple illustrations makes this book a winner.  I also like the limited color palette and the simplicity of the page design, which will work particularly well with infants.

Have a cool friend expecting a baby?  This book would make an ideal gift.  It will also be a great addition to the myriad of pastel board books on library shelves.  Appropriate for ages birth-2.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Appleseed.

Review: More by I. C. Springman

| Tasha

more

More by I. C. Springman, illustrated by Brian Lies

The book opens with a dejected magpie who has nothing at all.  Then a mouse gives him a marble that he takes to his nest.  Soon the marble is joined by a few other toys.  Then more and more, until there are so many things that the magpie has filled all sorts of nests in the tree with them.  Finally, the magpie adds one little penny to a nest and the branch cracks.  He has much too much now!  Everything tumbles to the ground, burying the poor magpie in his treasures.  The mice appear to dig him free and the pile becomes less and less as they work.  In the end, the magpie selects a few items to keep and lets the rest go, leaving with just enough.

This book is written in very spare language with only a few words per page.  They are all concept words, moving from nothing to everything to enough.  In between, there are terms like more, much, and less.  The dynamic illustrations really carry the story.  The magpie’s facial expressions range from greed to shock to satisfaction, all playing out nicely just in the shine of an eye and the curve of a bill.  Space is also played with in the images, speaking to the freedom of having just enough and the clutter of having too much.

This picture book deals directly with the idea of downsizing or having just enough toys and not too many, something that many children struggle with.  It is also a creative concept book that will work to teach those concepts through humor.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

| Tasha

green

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Wow.  That could be my entire review, just WOW.

Let me try to do better than that though.  Seeger looks at the different sorts of green that surround us.  There is sea green, shown with a turtle gliding through not only green but purples, reds, oranges and yellows too.  Lime green, pea green, faded green and fern green.  There are odd sorts of green too like wacky green, slow green and even no green at all.  The book is written simply with only a couple of words per page, making the focus of the book the illustrations.  And what illustrations they are.  This is my pick for the Caldecott winner so far this year. 

The illustrations are paintings that are done with plenty of thick paint, the brushstrokes visible making the pictures tactile.  They have a great depth of color and maintain a playful lightness that speaks to the young audience.  Turn the first page and you will be astonished to find die cuts in the page, done so smoothly and carefully that they don’t ever look like holes in the page until the page is turned. 

The book is a delight of surprises, new perspectives, and just speaks to everything that this format can be for children.  It is an unrivaled success as a concept book.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Review: Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long

| Tasha

up tall and high

Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long

A group of birds talk about who is tall, who is high in the air, and who is up in a tree in a series of very short chapters.  Birds compare their height by insisting that they are the tall one.  The ending of that story comes with a short bird who is definitely not small.  The high in the air story is about a bird who can fly and a penguin who can’t, but a solution is found.  Up in a tree is a story about a little bird who is up in a tree and a larger bird who decides to join him there.  Each of the stories is short, clever and has a lot of humor.

The book is endearingly simple with bold lines and bright colors.  There are only a few words per page and many pages have no words at all.  Definitely designed with toddlers in mind, these three short stories are filled with a cheerful attitude.

Ideal for small children, these are stories that have the color, friendliness and humor to be a hit.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Penguin Group.