Choo-Choo Peekaboo
Gareth Lucas
Little Tiger
Artistically minded Zebra sets out one fine morning eager to spend a day engaged in his favourite pastime, painting. Seemingly however, his animal friends and acquaintances have other ideas.
Chaos ensues wherever poor Zebra stops and begins his artistic endeavours, be it city,
riverside, by a lake, deep in the countryside,
even atop a mountain he finds no peace. Surely nothing can disturb his nocturnal attempt though? Errrm!
It looks as though there is only one way to please everyone … BEEP BEEP! TOOT TOOT! And off they go …
With paint-daubing primates, a loop-the-looping porcine, roller-skating rabbits, cable-car riding cows, a space-ship sortie by sheep even; all of which are revealed from behind the gate-fold flaps, this interactive book will delight tinies, especially those with a penchant for noisy vehicles, madcap animals and surprises – that covers pretty much all of them.
Add to the mix, laugh-out loud scenarios, speech bubbles and a highly satisfying finale, I’d say Gareth Lucas has a hit on his hands with this sturdy board book.
And adults will enjoy the visual references to famous artists along the way.
Marvel Alpha Block
Peskimo
Abrams Appleseed
Bristol based illustration/design partnership Peskimo have chosen scenes and characters from the Marvel Cinematic
Universe for their latest Block Book. As usual it’s a chunky board book with flaps and splendid action scenes, that feature herein everything from Ant Man to Falcon,
and Pepper Potts to Xandar, Yondu and Zuri, before the entire cast assembles in alphabetical order on a grand finale fold-out.
Amazingly, each superhero represents a letter of the alphabet – a large cut-out capital letter that leaps up from the centre of the spread and beneath which lurks the superhero in an action scene (along with other characters who may or may not share the same initial letter).
Watch out for punch packing potential should more than one little would-be superhero get their hands on this simultaneously. With its super art, it surely is a winning alphabet book that I suspect, adults will enjoy almost as much as their young ones.
Where Do Pants Go?
Rebecca Van Slyke and Chris Robertson
Sterling
A fun interactive book about getting dressed takes toddlers through the routine dressing ritual. To avoid confusion, adult sharers not in the US should be forewarned that “underwear’ is used for pants and pants herein refers to trousers, so readers aloud will probably want to make some adjustments as they read the question and answer narrative with tinies.
Said tinies will doubtless delight in the cumulative, predictable text with its repeated final ‘and underwear on your bottom!’
and giggle over the silly placements of the various items of clothing in this book that reminded me somewhat of Shigeo Watanabe and Yasuo Ohtomo’s How Do I Put It On? that features a muddled little bear.
A satisfying finale sees all the fully dressed little ones enjoying some outdoor play together.
Red Reading Hub - Jillrbennett's Reviews of Children's Books 