59) Chick by Ed Vere

Bibliographic Citation: Vere, Chick. Puffin, 2009. 16 pages. ISBN: 978-0141384863.

Format: Paperback

Author/Illustrator Sites: http://www.edvere.com   

Age Group: Ages 0-4 Years

Annotation: A newborn chick has its very first adventure.

Reflection: Chick is a pop-up book that shows a baby chick being hatched and some typical activities of chickens.  The book uses action sound words and rhyming, “crick crack crickitty crack” to describe the chick breaking out of the egg shell.  Once the chick breaks out of the shell, the text welcomes the baby with “hello chick!”  The chick then makes a “cheep” sound and the mama chicken comes running to embrace the newborn chick.  The next page shows the mother and chick eating together and describes the scene with “pick peck pickitty peck.”  Then the chick poops, “oops!” and children laugh as the poop is dropping from the chick’s bottom and keeps dropping as the reader spins the movable wheel.  The book ends with “chick sleeps,” a full day of activities for a baby chick.         

Categorization Tags: Mother and Child, Pop-up books, Toy and movable books

1) I Kissed The Baby by Mary Murphy

Bibliographic Citation:  Murphy, Mary. I Kissed The Baby. Candlewick Press, 2004. 24 pages. ISBN: 978-0763624439

Format:  Board Book

Age Group:  Ages 0–4 Years

Annotation:  A variety of barnyard animals welcome the new baby ducking with kisses and love.

Reflection:  I Kissed the Baby!  is a wonderful adaptation of a picture book made into a board book format. Young children love the book's high contrast black and white pictures and text.  The book utilizes negative space and positive space.  For example, on the first page, the animals and text are white and the background is black, then on the following pages it switches with the animals and text in black and the background in white.  This high contrast is extremely attractive to very young children and babies and is the reason it's one of the most popular board books on the market for this age group. 

Categorization Tags:  Board Books, Juvenile Fiction, Babies, Mother and Child, Ducks, Animals