Where are you hiding?What are you doing?
It’s no secret that I love concept books which challenge toddlers and explore things beyond basic letters, numbers, colours, etc. So it’s always a thrill for me to find a book that not only reaches beyond the basics, but is beautiful and engaging to boot.
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It’s been said before, but bears repeating: Hippopposites is exactly the sort of book for which Noodlenuts was created. In an endless sea of baby board books full of cutesy farm animals, with stock illustrations that all start to look the same, it’s easy for a parent to give up and assume that this is one area in which they’ll just have to suck it up and live with the tediousness. And after all, it’s not like one ought to expect entertainment from something the toddler mostly chews on, right? Read the rest of this entry »
My Friend Lucky is not your average book of opposites. While it does take the standard format for this genre, with the contrasted pairs portrayed on opposing pages, and a bare minimum of text, the author gives us more than just the usual concrete opposites. Along with big and small, and happy and sad, he uses this familiar format to illustrate more abstract ideas. Read the rest of this entry »
Princess Fred lived with her parents, King Nancy and Queen David, in a castle not far from here.
Thus begins the story of the young woman, nicknamed Princess Backwards because in a kingdom where everything is the reverse of our world, she seems to always be doing things the wrong way. Read the rest of this entry »
Over Under not only left an impression on me, it actually went so far as to prove me wrong in thinking that narrative flow was something one could not reasonably expect from an infant board book. Read the rest of this entry »
Ingredients: oranges, kumquats, rhubarb, black-eyed peas, assorted broccoli, bell peppers, onions, carrots, portabella, enoki and white-button mushrooms, sesame seeds, mustard seeds, pink and green peppercorns, pink grapefruit, kiwifruits, . . . etc., etc.
As the ingredients for a single recipe, the above list is more than a little unappetizing. Unappetizing, that is, unless it’s a recipe for learning basic concepts in a hilarious, creative way. Read the rest of this entry »
