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Emberley, Rebecca
19 Reviews
(3)
K-3
At the Spare Parts Mart, lonely Rhoobart meets fellow robot Sweetart, who says, "You don't need a new heart, / you just need a jump start!" She does the honors, leading to a fast friendship. The endlessly resourceful Emberleys' intermittently rhyming ode to oddity features collage-style art, here foregrounding found-object body parts: a rotary-dial eye, a scissors leg, etc.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
(4)
K-3
A scorpion convinces a crocodile to give him a ride across the river, and, because it's his nature, stings him halfway across. The crocodile bites back, and the two continue to fight as they sink to the river bottom, where "you can hear them arguing still." Electric blues and greens predominate in a muddled retelling of an often-modified fable.
Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning
(3)
PS
I Like to Read series.
Mice dressed in bright winter gear skate patterns on ice. But wait--what do those patterns and lines create? A "cat with a hat skates with mice on ice. / Nice!" Colorful jagged-edged digital and cut-paper illustrations expand the very simple rhymes to make a lively story that is both delightful to look at and to read aloud.
Reviewer: Patricia Riley
(3)
K-3
An ant carrying some picnic leftovers home to her family encounters an all-bug band that serenades her until she reaches her destination; to thank them, she welcomes them into her home for a party. This Cajun-flecked retelling of a classic fable features illustrations that one would expect from the Emberleys: unimpeachable cut-paper-like art in electrifying color combinations.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
(3)
PS
Black-and-white beasties rendered with tribal art–like motifs cavort across brightly colored backgrounds in this counting rhyme. One by one, ten beasties (but no numerals) appear on graphically bold, busy pages. Sharp-eyed kids will delight to find one sharp-toothed monster gobbling the others as the counting goes backward from ten to one. A song is downloadable at the publisher's website.
Reviewer: Carolyn Shute
(3)
PS
The kids' classic "If You're Happy and You Know It" is reborn with monster-centric lyrics: "If you're a monster and you know it, / and you really want to show it, / if you're a monster and you know it--wriggle your warts." The dependable Emberleys dress a dead-black set with cut-paper-like digital art starring outer-spacey, reptilian, and otherwise creepy creatures.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
(3)
PS
When a purple cat, gray rat, and green frog repeatedly refuse to help her make a cake, Red Hen does it herself. Humor and repetition in the text ("'Not I,' said the cat. 'Not I,' said the rat. 'Bribbit,' said the frog") is mirrored in the graphically playful placement of small speckled chicks, mixing bowls, and multiple tiers of the ambitious confection.
Reviewer: Lolly Robinson
(3)
PS
In this takeoff on the classic cumulative story, a monster swallows increasingly large creatures, starting with a tick and ending with a jackal (his attempt to swallow a lion ends poorly). Deliciously bright colors and zany creature-within-creature illustrations will keep the pages of this silly verse turning. Repetition and a catchy onomatopoetic refrain ("scritchy-scratch, scritch, scritchy-scratch") make participation irresistible.
Reviewer: Sethany Rancier Alongi
(2)
PS
In this irreverent re-visioning, silly sound effects, comedic editorial comments, and riotous illustrations play up the bird-braininess of Chicken Little's ill-informed sky-is-falling crusade. Large, boldly colored birds with mesmerizingly multicolored eyes flap across spacious white pages, running for their lives. There's nothing subtle about this account of birds on the verge, which makes the book perfect for cheep storytime thrills.
Reviewer: Kitty Flynn
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2009
(3)
PS
A fine introduction to piñatas, this appealingly designed book uses mixed-media collage illustrations in vibrant colors to show all the toys, trinkets, and candy that go into a piñata. The bilingual text in English and Spanish is simple, straightforward, and attractively placed on the page. Included at the back are directions for making a piñata.
Reviewer: Tim Wadham
(3)
PS
Spanish/English bilingual texts introduce preschoolers to a variety of common objects--including dolls (las muñecas), noodles (los fideos), underwear (la ropa interior), and a cow (la vaca). Emberley's illustrations are clear and bright and stand out beautifully against the clean white backgrounds. These are welcome additions to Emberley's growing board book library. [Review covers these titles: My Animals, My Clothes, My Food, and My Toys.]
Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth
(3)
PS
Spanish/English bilingual texts introduce preschoolers to a variety of common objects--including dolls (las muñecas), noodles (los fideos), underwear (la ropa interior), and a cow (la vaca). Emberley's illustrations are clear and bright and stand out beautifully against the clean white backgrounds. These are welcome additions to Emberley's growing board book library. [Review covers these titles: My Animals, My Clothes, My Food, and My Toys.]
Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth
(3)
PS
Spanish/English bilingual texts introduce preschoolers to a variety of common objects--including dolls (las muñecas), noodles (los fideos), underwear (la ropa interior), and a cow (la vaca). Emberley's illustrations are clear and bright and stand out beautifully against the clean white backgrounds. These are welcome additions to Emberley's growing board book library. [Review covers these titles: My Animals, My Clothes, My Food, and My Toys.]
Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth
(3)
PS
Spanish/English bilingual texts introduce preschoolers to a variety of common objects--including dolls (las muñecas), noodles (los fideos), underwear (la ropa interior), and a cow (la vaca). Emberley's illustrations are clear and bright and stand out beautifully against the clean white backgrounds. These are welcome additions to Emberley's growing board book library. [Review covers these titles: My Animals, My Clothes, My Food, and My Toys.]
Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth
(3)
PS
Bold and bright cut-paper illustrations introduce preschoolers to shapes, colors, opposites, and numbers in Spanish and English. Each double-page spread effectively combines the featured concept and a familiar object. Count nine ladybugs (nueve mariquitas), see a diamond-shaped kite (el rombo, el papalote), or identify the color green (verde) of a frog (la rana) in these visually stimulating bilingual vocabulary primers.
Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza
(3)
PS
Bold and bright cut-paper illustrations introduce preschoolers to shapes, colors, opposites, and numbers in Spanish and English. Each double-page spread effectively combines the featured concept and a familiar object. Count nine ladybugs (nueve mariquitas), see a diamond-shaped kite (el rombo, el papalote), or identify the color green (verde) of a frog (la rana) in these visually stimulating bilingual vocabulary primers.
Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza
(3)
PS
Bold and bright cut-paper illustrations introduce preschoolers to shapes, colors, opposites, and numbers in Spanish and English. Each double-page spread effectively combines the featured concept and a familiar object. Count nine ladybugs (nueve mariquitas), see a diamond-shaped kite (el rombo, el papalote), or identify the color green (verde) of a frog (la rana) in these visually stimulating bilingual vocabulary primers.
Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza
(3)
PS
Bold and bright cut-paper illustrations introduce preschoolers to shapes, colors, opposites, and numbers in Spanish and English. Each double-page spread effectively combines the featured concept and a familiar object. Count nine ladybugs (nueve mariquitas), see a diamond-shaped kite (el rombo, el papalote), or identify the color green (verde) of a frog (la rana) in these visually stimulating bilingual vocabulary primers.
Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza
(4)
K-3
Three members of the Emberley family, all illustrators, contribute to a mixed bag of offerings. Ed creates computer art in comic-book-style panels to tell stories and describe craft activities. Rebecca's cut-paper art is easily more interesting and accomplished than her poems. Michael's offerings are the most balanced, with childlike appeal in the texts and an impressive variety of energetic styles and mediums for the art.
Reviewer: Lolly Robinson
19 reviews
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