These young twins can't get enough of their favorite snack—and they aren't the only ones!
With playful rhyming text from award-winning poet Susan Musgrave and gorgeous illustrations by Esperança Melo, this exuberant board book will delight little ones and have everyone happily shouting, "More blueberries!"
April 13, 2015
The duo behind Love You More (2014) returns with an enthusiastic celebration of blueberries, starring two children (and a few animals) who canât get enough of them. The inherent messiness of eating blueberries figures prominently: âBlueberry fingers,/ blueberry nose./ Blueberry lips,/ blueberry toes,â writes Musgrave as Meloâs warm acrylics show the boy and girl leaving blue hand- and footprints in their wake. An interlude in which cats, crows, frogs, and bears express their fervor for blueberries (âFrogs hop on blueberries,/ pop, hop, popâ) disrupts the repeating structure of the rhymes that precede and follow it, but itâs a small quibble in a joyful story. Up to age 3.
Two siblings overindulge in the titular fruit. A brother and sister (probably, judging by hairstyle and clothing) get their hands on too many blueberries in this board book. The pair eats the blueberries straight, then move on to eating them in pancakes and muffins. These tots make a bit of a mess, even letting some animals in on the purple-stained fun. After a bath, the kids are sent to bed. Readers might wonder whether Musgrave was aiming to set some sort of record for making parents say "blueberry" till they're blue in the face. She combines "blueberry" with simple, toddler-friendly vocabulary for an infectious chant: "Blueberry cheeks, / blueberry chin. // Blueberry teeth, / blueberry grin." Occasional double-page spreads stop the momentum with all-caps shouts for "MORE BLUEBERRIES!" Melo extends the theme with a blue-and-yellow-striped shirt for the little boy, a blueberry-patterned dress for the girl, and copious smears of blueberry-on cheeks, chins, and noses, as well as foot-, hand-, and pawprints. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the frog, bear, and crow that join the fun may be imaginary, if stuffed toys and bedside book are taken as clues. A little monomaniacal, but a great read-aloud that supports both vocabulary building and phonemic awareness. (Board book. 6 mos -2) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2015
Two siblings overindulge in the titular fruit. A brother and sister (probably, judging by hairstyle and clothing) get their hands on too many blueberries in this board book. The pair eats the blueberries straight, then move on to eating them in pancakes and muffins. These tots make a bit of a mess, even letting some animals in on the purple-stained fun. After a bath, the kids are sent to bed. Readers might wonder whether Musgrave was aiming to set some sort of record for making parents say "blueberry" till they're blue in the face. She combines "blueberry" with simple, toddler-friendly vocabulary for an infectious chant: "Blueberry cheeks, / blueberry chin. // Blueberry teeth, / blueberry grin." Occasional double-page spreads stop the momentum with all-caps shouts for "MORE BLUEBERRIES!" Melo extends the theme with a blue-and-yellow-striped shirt for the little boy, a blueberry-patterned dress for the girl, and copious smears of blueberry-on cheeks, chins, and noses, as well as foot-, hand-, and pawprints. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the frog, bear, and crow that join the fun may be imaginary, if stuffed toys and bedside book are taken as clues. A little monomaniacal, but a great read-aloud that supports both vocabulary building and phonemic awareness. (Board book. 6 mos -2)
COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2015
Baby/Toddler-In short rhyming sentences, this book features two siblings who eat their way through several bowls of blueberries, earning "blueberry fingers, blueberry nose./Blueberry lips, blueberry toes." When the bowl is empty, the typeface increases with the demand for "MORE BLUEBERRIES!" The lack of a "please" will be overlooked, as the sheer joyfulness of the text and the vibrant acrylic paintings (appropriately smeared with bright blue) is infectious. Pair with Vera B. Williams's More, More, More Said the Baby (HarperCollins, 1990) while teaching babies and their caregivers the American Sign Language word for "more."
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