Kevin Henkes: Little White Rabbit

Don't you love it when publishers convert fabulous authors' picture books into fabulous board books? Take Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes. It was released in 2011 and now is available in a small format for the youngest totz.
 
Little White Rabbit hops into his day with wonder and his imagination. Readers will be challenged to think outside themselves by Rabbit's example. What would it be like to be tall, green, or flutter? Frightened, he hops home where he doesn't have to wonder who loves him.

Kevin's thick green outlines surround soft pencil colors. There's almost a sophisticated coloring book feel to the final art. The board book is the perfect format for text and image. Hop on over and find it at your local indie store or library.

Little White Rabbit
by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 2014

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes is a delightful addition to the board book market. How refreshing to read a tale for the youngest reader that has a multilevel plot. Whether it is a bad day for a yellow bird, a white dog, an orange fox, or a brown squirrel, there is a solution around the corner to uplift everyone's spirits. I especially liked the bird who merely forgot his problem and chose to fly higher than ever. And then the bird's mishap is what touches a little girl causing her to announce, "Mama! What a good day!"

Kevin's thick-lined, realistic watercolors occupy the right side of the spread during the bad day litany. A striped page signals the story's turn and then all the illustrations sit on the left side, until the last page turn when text and image share a space together.

Subtle imagery placement, teamed with the tightest word structure, yields a beautiful board board. First released as a picture book, The New York Times Book Review called A Good Day, "a masterpiece, an almost perfect picture book." And maybe they were right, because maybe A Good Day is a perfect board book.

A Good Day
by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 2010