One Red Button

September 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 3-Don't let the format of these wordless books fool you-their uses extend beyond what might typically be considered toddler-only territory. In String, viewers follow a thin, white cotton cord from spread to spread. In the first image, it secures a parcel wrapped in crinkled brown paper, becoming next a clothesline, then an outline of a rabbit, a head of curly hair, and a bowl of spaghetti, until the final picture where a small child in silhouette is perched on a swing of string against a purple sky. The subject item in Button must be discovered in pictures depicting a parked fire engine, a ladybug, an apple tree, a traffic light, and so on as it rolls from scene to scene. In style, the collage artwork is reminiscent of Nancy Elizabeth Wallace's Apples, Apples, Apples! and The Kindness Quilt, featuring brightly colored paper cutouts against bold background colors or patterns. Both animals and objects in Jocelyn's delightful books will be familiar to most young children, and her illustrations, with their amusing details, lend themselves to repeated viewing. With these titles, some string, glue, and buckets of large buttons and crayons, educators and parents will have some ready-made art activities (supervised, of course) for mini-makers-and their older siblings. VERDICT Quirky and fun, these books are natural lead-ins to art projects.-Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2018
A red button falls off a coat and ends up on an adventure.In this charmingly illustrated, wordless board book, a red button falls off a raincoat and wanders through various alternative identities befitting its color and shape. On different pages, the button is a cherry on the top of an ice cream cone, a wheel on a fire truck, and even a porthole on a pirate ship. Finally, the button ends up finding its place among a colorful collection of fellow lost buttons, giving children the opportunity to spot it one last time. Jocelyn's (Sam Sorts, 2017) mixed-media collage illustrations pair gorgeous patterns with rich textures, creating delightful images that children will recognize from their daily lives. The wordlessness lends the pages versatility, creating opportunities for children to find the button on every page, build vocabulary, and use their imaginations to tell their own stories about what they see.All in all, this is a clever, attractive book that parents and children will thoroughly enjoy. (Board book. 1-4)

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