Board Books about Colors Archives -

The Tiny Traveler Board Book Series by Misti Kenison

March 25, 2015
goodreadswithronna
Ages 0-2, Board Book Series, Children's Book Reviews, Concepts - Colors, Concepts - Size & Shape, Juvenile Fiction, The Tiny Traveler

The Tiny Traveler: France, A Book of Colors &
The Tiny Traveler: Egypt, A Book of Shapes
Written and illustrated by Misti Kenison
(Sky Pony Press; $5.95, Ages 0-2)

I love to travel, in fact my whole family does, and I can’t think of a better bug to catch than the travel bug. So, when I read about Misti Kenison’s new board book series introducing shapes and colors through foreign destinations, I had to check them out. What a clever way to get the littlest members of your family thinking about faraway lands and all the delights in store when venturing abroad.

The Tiny Traveler: France, A Book of Colors includes the Moulin Rouge and a dancer in a red dress, a purple rose window of a cathedral, three slices of cheese inside a baguette, a white Arc de Triomphe, a black beret, an orange sunset outside the Louvre, a finely manicured green garden that could be the Tuileries, a brown gargoyle decorating Notre Dame, and last but not least, the Eiffel Tower. It’s gray during the day but turns a sparkling blue at night. As you can see from the cover, the illustrations are colorful yet unembellished. Youngsters are given clues with each page color to help them recognize the word which is always in upper case. The best part, you don’t even need to know the famous landmarks to be able to give your child a taste of France and the colorful scenery on offer.

The Tiny Traveler: Egypt, A Book of Shapes puts the famed Great Sphinx right into your toddler’s hands, but before that there are the pyramids. “The front of the pyramid is a TRIANGLE.” There’s an Egyptian mummy’s rectangular beard, a square on the camel’s rug which covers his hump, and of course, “The sphinx’s head is a HEXAGON.” Kenison’s found a jar to use for an oval shape, hieroglyphics indicating a cross (this example is a bit challenging), a star in a geometrically-patterned window, and a heart shape on the back of a beetle (scarab). Finishing up their shape tour of Egypt, children will see a spread with the sun, followed by the last spread of a crescent moon, both high above ancient minarets in magical looking day and nighttime settings. There is a bold geometric example of the shape on the text page opposite each monument or item described and it’s also outlined in the scene so finding it is easy.

The Tiny Traveler board books are a fun and different way to educate your toddlers about the basic concepts of colors and shapes all from the comforts of your favorite rocking chair. I have no doubt after sharing these books, parents will find their children looking for shapes and colors in all they encounter.

– Reviewed by Ronna Mandel

Mix It Up! by Hervé Tullet, A Review, Interview & Giveaway

MIX IT UP! FUN FOR EVERYONE

Good Reads With Ronna recently interviewed notable Parisian artist and author Hervé Tullet via email before his upcoming trip to Los Angeles. Tullet, the creative force behind the best-selling Press Here, and his latest, Mix It Up!, will be at both MOCA & LACMA this weekend conducting mural workshops for children using his books as inspiration. Both books are published by Chronicle Books, cost $15.99 each, and are recommended for ages 3-5.

REVIEW
Mix It Up! is an interactive board book of the coolest kind. It’s the type of book children will reach for frequently, and each time engage with it in a new and exciting way. Picking up where Press Here left off – although each book stands on its own – Mix It Up! requires no battery or password. In fact it’s better than any app because youngsters get to hold the book in their hands and take a journey through color under Tullet’s expert tutelage. Note: Insert fab French accent here, “Tap that gray spot. Just a little, to see what happens.”

Written in the second person, Mix It Up! invites kids to place their hands on the page, close their eyes, and count to five then MIX IT UP! They can tap, rub, smudge and smoosh to their hearts’ content without getting a drop of paint on them. I couldn’t wait to turn each page to see what Tullet had in store. This book got me away from the computer and onto my feet, moving, tilting and turning pages to and fro, but really, it’s okay to read it seated as well! The best part is finding out what happens when various colors come together on the page. Tullet’s text will make each youngster interacting with Mix It Up! feel satisfied, successful and ready to smoosh some colors on their own. – Ronna Mandel

INTERVIEW
Good Reads With Ronna: At what age would you recommend parents begin introducing art to their children to look at? To engage in?

Hervé Tullet: Babies don’t know anything, which is why I think they know everything. With their eyes they experience everything as new and interpret everything without any prior experience. This is imagination. They are the artists, our real artists, that’s why I think that museums are the perfect place to feed them with colors and shapes and sensations without any restrictions (except maybe at feeding time!)

GRWR: Were you stirred and moved by art as young as age three – five like the age of the kids your books are geared to?

TULLET: It was a different time, and people didn’t raise children the way they do now. During my childhood, I learned a lot from being alone, from being bored, from not knowing. When I was a teenager, books and museum became my way out, my breath, my salvation

GRWR: Your new book is just so kid-friendly. Why do you think no one has thought of your brilliant idea for a book like Mix It Up! sooner?

TULLET: On the one hand, hand I think that ideas are in the air and everybody can catch them. That’s what happens when you find one; it looks like it came out of the blue. On the other hand, I think that it is a long process of maturation and that I spent lot of time on, nearly obsessed, to find, to think, to search, go on thinking again, erase, cut and at last find the ideas.

Press Here and Mix it Up! are the result of this long process, the high point of 20 years of exploration and work.

GRWR: By having kids get down on their hands and knees with some color and a paintbrush (at your workshops), while you’re out there motivating them, what are the things you’d like to achieve?

TULLET: I’m motivated by having a great time all together and making great memories. And maybe, from this experience, it will create a desire to have another one, or it will be a seed that will flourish later on, out of the blue. Or, maybe not exactly out of the blue.

GRWR: What do kids say to you after they’ve worked on the enormous mural?

TULLET: A look, a smile, a word, a hand shake, a kiss, a sign, a thank you. All these are so deep, so sincere, so true, to me that I accept all of them as true gifts.

Here’s some advice Tullet offers attendees to this weekend’s artsy workshops: “… one thing, please listen to my prompts very carefully. That’s it! That’s all what you have to do! Except the babies of course, they’re going to do whatever they’re going to do!”

Don’t miss Tullet’s L.A. appearances this weekend at MOCA & LACMA on Saturday, 10/11 and Sunday, 10/12. Head to L.A. Parent to get more details by clicking here. In that article, you can also read Tullet’s reply to my question: Is there anything you’d like to say to the families of L.A. and Southern California who will be attending your events? I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of his warm and welcoming response.

To purchase Press Here and Mix It Up! head to your local independent bookseller.

GIVEAWAY
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Pocket Piggies Numbers! & Pocket Piggies Colors!

Pocket Piggies are back
in a new line of board books from Workman Publishing.

What’s cuter than one pocket piggy? Two pocket piggies – in a teacup!

Pocket Piggies Numbers! with photographs by Richard Austin, Workman Publishing, 2014.

The Teacup Pigs of Pennywell Farm are back, this time starring in a new 22-page board book line perfect for tiny hands to hold. The simple language accompanied by Richard Austin’s adorable photographs will have your child “reading” in 1, 2, 3!

4 pocket piggies with a pup

5 pocket piggies in a row

6 pocket piggies in the snow

Counting from 1 to 10 is fun in Pocket Piggies Numbers! (Workman Publishing, $5.95, Ages 0-3) and the book is such a quick read, parents will love reading it again and again.

Pocket Piggies Colors! with photographs by Richard Austin, Workman Publishing, 2014.

Pocket Piggies Colors! (Workman Publishing, $5.95, Ages 0-3) with photos by Richard Austin is the perfect companion book for Pocket Piggy Numbers! With only two words on a page, this book will hold the youngest child’s attention and have them reading right along.

Brown Dog

Orange Flowers

Purple Car

I don’t know how Austin managed to get the pocket piggie to hold a miniature red guitar, or push a baby buggy, but it’s easy to see why children and parents alike cannot resist the Teacup Pigs of Pennywell Farm. Now that’s something to oink about!

– Reviewed by MaryAnne Locher