Happy Face / Sad Face

September 11, 2017
Punchy rhymes, irreverent cartooning, and a multiracial cast of babies introduce terms like happy, sad, asleep, and awake. Despite the title, Cotter (Beard in a Box) is more focused on opposite pairs than on what some of the faces look like; readers don’t even see the faces of a girl mid-jump (“up face”) or a baby with a kitchen pot on its head (“hidden in a pot face”). But Cotter’s brash cartoons and the goofy energy of his rhymes create a solid atmosphere of fun, and an inset mirror lets readers show off their own faces at book’s end. Available simultaneously: Little Face/Big Face. Ages 1–4. Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House.

January 1, 2018
A collection of opposite pairings is presented through the facial expressions of a relatively diverse group of tots.In five vignettes, each told in two double-page spreads, a youngster demonstrates a pair of opposites, such as "quiet" and "loud," "asleep" and "awake." A child with brown skin and two buoyant Afro-puff pigtails bouncing on a trampoline is paired with clever text that is metered out line by line over the next four pages: "Up face / Down face // Jumping all around face!" Some of the jokes are more for the grown-ups ("Nana needs a break face"), but little ones will appreciate the lively rhymes and the easy-to-read facial expressions. The antics end with all the families from the subsequent pages watching a marching band together; the text reads, "A big, happy crowd face!" The final lines, which read, "And my favorite face... // Your face!" are accompanied by a round, Mylar mirror embedded into the recto of the back cover. The companion book, Little Face Big Face, uses various animal visages to provide another primer on opposites. In both offerings, Cotter employs a vivacious mix of bright hues and highly saturated darker tones in his illustrations, likely pencil and watercolor.Upbeat, zippy fun. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)

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