Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Read, Read, Read said the baby: You are my baby: Farm by Lorena Siminovich

[This review was previously published. It has been edited and rewritten]

This is a new series by board book creator Lorena Siminovich. When I first wrote this review, the series had two titles, Farm and Safari. There are several others available now.

The novelty aspect of these is that it's actually two books. If you look closely at the picture you can see the line around the calf - that's the second book. Each one opens independently of each other, but the back cover is solid, so they're not held together only by the spine.

Each large page has a simple descriptive sentence "you have a curly, pink tail." When you open the small page, it shows the baby of the adult animal and says "you are my baby, little piglet. Oink, oink."

The pages are very thick and sturdy and I waggled them about (much to the well-disguised bewilderment of the publicists at ALA) without seeing any weak spots where the two books could come apart. That being said, a kid managed to rip them apart after having them for only a few months, but it was a deliberate assault - I think the books themselves are quite sturdy under normal wear and tear.

Verdict: Siminovich's art has really developed in this series. The colors are fresh and bright and the simple correlation of adult animal and child, plus animal sounds, is a classic. Her design and art meld into a delightfully unique interpretation of the classic "animal sounds" and "baby animals" board books. Highly recommended.

You are my baby: Farm
ISBN: 9781452106434; Published 2013 by Chronicle; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Purchased for the library

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