Little Bug on the Move: Stéphanie Babin

Little Bug is on the Move in today's board book feature. Teaching direction and action, a little bug can be moved on each spread through sliding finger holes. They will travel up a hill, among the trees, and round and round a flower. Journeying with purpose, this little bug will emerge on the final spread as a surprise, pop up feature. 

Little fingers will enjoy manipulating the slides and moving little bug onward. Olivia Cosneau's illustrations offer colorful, simply patterned shapes and areas for the bug's environment. Gentle fear, mystery, and surprise await your readertotz as they are introduced to this wee caterpillar. 

Little Bug on the Move

by Stéphanie Babin

illustrated by Olivia Cosneau

Twirl, 2020

Baby Animals and Body: Stephanie Babin

How about fun fiction for your readertotz? Play Tabs from Twirl has released Baby Animals and Body. Durable thick board books with prominent, arrowed tabs teach first readers concise facts.

Stephanie Babin's text is straightforward: "A dog's babies are called puppies." And "When you are out and about during the day, dirt gets stuck to your skin." Thierry Bedouet has illustrated the animal book while Ilaria Falorsi illustrated Body. I would have thought one person created both sets of images as there is a constancy between them.

From the back covers: "...sturdy pull-tabs on every page that are right for little hands, and bite-size facts that are just right for hungry minds!"

Enjoy these nonfiction works, their action and information.

Play Tabs
Baby Animals
by Stephanie Babin
illustrated by Thierry Bedouet

Body
by Stephanie Babin
illustrated by Ilaria Falorsi

Twirl, 2019 (first published in France, 2018)

Touch and Explore, Construction and Who Lives Where? Stephanie Babin

Publisher Twirl is knocking it out of the park! I'm excited to share recent titles of these high quality board books. Watch for more upcoming, but today, I'll point to two written by Stephanie Babin.

Touch and Explore Construction, illustrated by Benjamin Becue, brings a new dimension to the building themed book. Inserts hold relevant textures within the scenes. Safety cones are shiny plastic, rubble feels like rubble, a crinkled paper feels like wood, and wet paint feels sticky.

Setting up, demolition, building a house and road are featured along with more. Various races, genders, and ethnicities work, walk, and play side by side. Smaller font offers further information such as: Even the repair of a streetlight is a small construction site!

Also by Stephanie Babin, illustrated by Kiko, is Who Lives Where? This is one of my favorite Twirl books. The left spread establishes a location and inhabitants who live there. i.e. In the House: a guinea pig, a cat, a spider. Each says where they live and the illustration includes the home, which may or may not be inhabited. The cat is not in her bed. The right spread shows those isolated animals and a sliding panel reveals their home. A reader might try to recall the mouse (slide the panel) lives in a hole.

I find the engineering satisfying. The panels slide easily with a nice click. The book explores the house, farm, garden, mountains, savanna, and sea. The sole lives in the sand, while the guinea fowl makes a home in a shrub.

There's an elegance and higher expectation in the tot in these two books by Babin. Brava!

Touch and Explore, Construction
by Stephanie Babin
illustrated by Benjamin Becue
Who Lives Where?
by Stephanie Babin
illustrated by Kiko
Twirl, first published in France

A Tree for All Seasons: Maryse Guittet

It's a tree illustrating 4 seasons in your hands. By lifting graduating, shaped pages, totz are shown the life of a tree from spring to winter. Cleverly, the trunk is stationary causing the peeking fox to listen in as the story is read aloud. Each page includes additional flaps where readers can discover hidden animals within the branches and leaves.

Maryse Guittet's illustrations are controlled and open with an occasional stamp of what could be lino block for texture. The shapes are cheery along with the insects, birds, and animal faces.

Watch the tree bloom and the snow fall in A Tree for All Seasons. It will be a hit year round.

A Tree for All Seasons
by Maryse Guittet
Twirl, 2014

Anne-Sophie Baumann: The Ultimate Book of Vehicles From Around the World

60 moveable parts! 60! This big book from Twirl had to be titled The Ultimate Book of Vehicles, right? There are flaps, tabs, pop-ups and slides, all portraying locomotion from around the world. Yep. I just checked. There are trains, too.

Didier Balicevic's illustrations provide a happy medium of detail, not too little where credibility would be lost in the discerning vehicle lover, but not too much to overwhelm the vast collection. The first pages, including a few such as Construction, Demolition, and City Maintenance, are illustrated on white backgrounds. The simplicity helps the reader to focus on the many vehicles. Midway, the Rescue page creates a scene, while latter spreads of Fishing, Sea Travel, Air Travel and Space have blue or black backgrounds which are refreshing to the eye.

There is so much to see and learn in this ultimate book. Your totz won't want to miss it! Get those engines humming.

The Ultimate Book of Vehicles From Around the World
by Anne-Sophie Baumann
illustrated by Didier Balicevic
Twirl, 2014

Poetry Friday: Presto Change-o!

Here's the first Twirl book I ran across at ALA Midwinter Conference. It's big! And it twirls! Presto Chango-o! A book of animal magic is a collection of 17 objects which transform, after a twirl of pieces, into an animal. A teapot transforms into an elephant, while a flower turns into a lion.

There's so much for totz to learn: from manipulating the pieces, to observing shapes, to seeing how changing shapes can completely change an identity. And with rhyming descriptions it's perfect for Poetry Friday!

"Here's a little teapot, filled with magic tea.
Whoever takes a drink of it will soon begin to see,

That they have started growing, tall and grey and wide,
With a long and heavy trunk, and a thick and wrinkled hide."

Presto Change-o! A book of animal magic
by Edouard Manceau
Twirlm 2914

Jojo's First Word Book

I'm so excited about the release of Twirl! These are hefty, innovative board books. Think of them as the Cadillacs of the genre. First up for our totz is Jojo's First Word Book by Xavier Deneux. Introducing Jojo and Lulu, brother and sister rabbits who showcase words about themselves, the home, the outside, and animals.

With a handle to carry the book and thick tabs to divide the sections, you'll be amazed at the breadth of this work. Flat shapes, bright colors, and a cheerful script with small embedded stories will keep your totz' attention. The cover is raised with cutouts as are each silhouetted division.

Find Jojo and grow familiar with Twirl. You're going to love them!

Jojo's First Word Book
by Xavier Deneux
Twirl, 2014