Children - Learning Basic Concepts, Fiction - Animals, Children - Games & Activities, Children - Fiction & Literature

Heads

Name: Heads
Author: Matthew Van Fleet
ISBN: 9781442403796

by Matthew Van Fleet

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Overview

From the #1 New York Times bestselling creator Matt Van Fleet comes a companion to the million plus copy bestseller, Tails that will dazzle and delight! Heads – wooly, bump and hairy – never has such a collection of animal heads been so much fun!

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

This touch-and-feel companion to Van Fleet's bestselling Tails (2003) is interactive even before page one, with a pull-tab cover in which animals move letters into place to spell out the title. The book is stuffed with myriad textures, detailed watercolor illustrations, and playful rhymes ("Bite mouth,/ Shout mouth,/ Slobber mouth,/ Slurp!/ Nibble mouth,/ Chew mouth,/ Rude mouths... BURP!"); a hippo's mouth opens wide during said burp--just one of a couple of kid-pleasing gross-out moments. All the animals, from axolotl to tamandua, are labeled on the final spread, after a fold-out surprise ending. It's a buoyant celebration of the animal kingdom's diversity. Ages 2-up. (Aug.)

About the Author, Matthew Van Fleet

MATTHEW VAN FLEET has written and illustrated many books for children, including Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings, which has sold more than a million copies. He lives in Chappaqua, New York.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Author/artist Matt Van Fleet topped the preschool charts with his Tails (9780152167738); now he turns the tables upside down with a deep fun plunge into the soaring world of Heads. Another head-turning hit for an entertaining author.

Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

* This touch-and-feel companion to Van Fleet's bestselling Tails (2003) is interactive even before page one, with a pull-tab cover in which animals move letters into place to spell out the title. The book is stuffed with myriad textures, detailed watercolor illustrations, and playful rhymes ("Bite mouth,/ Shout mouth,/ Slobber mouth,/ Slurp!/ Nibble mouth,/ Chew mouth,/ Rude mouths... BURP!"); a hippo's mouth opens wide during said burp—just one of a couple of kid-pleasing gross-out moments. All the animals, from axolotl to tamandua, are labeled on the final spread, after a fold-out surprise ending. It's a buoyant celebration of the animal kingdom's diversity. - Publishers Weekly, June 28, 2010, *STAR

Discover the hidden talents of more than 30 (supercute) animals with the pull of a tab.—Parenting Early Years, August 2010

Children's Literature - Eleanor Heldrich

The best-selling author and illustrator of Heads has had a long string of successful books for children, and this one will be no exception. Like several other of his works, it is a large white book of thick pages and stiff-to-push or pull tabs. Van Fleet has a delightful talent for creating huggable wild animals. In this book the giraffe, elephant, rhinoceros, lion and alligator on the cover seem to be enjoying a good laugh together as, with the reader's help, they shove together the five letters necessary to spell the title of the book. Inside the reader will find all kinds of birds, animals and reptiles, and not just their heads! There are touchable textured areas of wooly heads, hairy heads, floppy ears and sticky tongues. One pull-tab cracks two eggs open so two ducklings can hatch; another causes a frog's neck to inflate. An elephant wiggles his ears to shake off flies and a baby tiger wakes his mother with a little lick. The reader may not realize how many animals he has encountered until the last page when, inside a giant pop-up of a whale's spout, all the animals in the book reappear. Reviewer: Eleanor Heldrich

School Library Journal

PreS—This companion to Van Fleet's Tails (S & S, 2003) encourages interaction from cover to end page. Children begin the safari that celebrates the traits of diverse animals by pulling a tab that allows a giraffe, elephant, rhino, tiger, and alligator to assemble jumbled letters to create the title. On each busy page, more tabs open a platypus egg, enlarge a frog's throat, and wiggle an elephant's ears. Watercolor cartoon critters rock the pages with greedy grins, loving licks, and astonished yelps. The grand finale has a flip up showing every character enjoying a spout ride, thanks to a cheery whale. The animals, from fly to flamingo, are each named-great for vocabulary enrichment. This fun board book is designed to entertain toddlers time and again, but may not survive long in a circulating collection, so get a second copy for storytimes.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

Kirkus Reviews

Animals characterized by distinctive features are displayed accordingly, if haphazardly. From heads (woolly llama heads, hairy tamarins, pointy rhinos, beaky toucans and billed platypi) through necks, ears, mouths, tongues, noses and eyes, a variety of animals are showcased, often with touch-and-feel elements and with one animal per spread featuring pull-tab action. Elephant ears twitch, a hippo mouth belches. These tabs and movable parts are sturdy enough for repeated toddler (ab)use. Purists will complain that animals are thrown together with no regard for common habitat, and grammarians will cringe at the syntax and forced rhyme: "Bite mouth, / Shout mouth, / Slobber mouth, / Slurp! / Nibble mouth, / Chew mouth, / Rude mouths... / BURP!" The closing fold-out that features all the animals, labeled, tumbling in a whale's spout is cool, though, even if it's zoologically impossible. (Pop-up. 2-5)