Review by Kirkus Book Review
A set of stock photos, mostly of happy babies or toddlers, with big spinners between each that offer appropriate single words in 20 languages. A baby waves in the first picture, and turning the toothed wheel reveals 20 greetings in a small die-cut window adjacent. These range from "bonjour" to--with phonetic pronunciation in brackets and, as required, nonroman script--"kumustà," "xin chào," and "[mar-ha-baan]." Each language is identified (the ones above being French, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic), with English included in the mix but, due to the circular format, not privileged. Refreshingly, European languages are in the minority, and there is an uncommon bounty of Asian languages. Except for colonial tongues, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Oceania are unrepresented. The infant cast and the grown-ups sometimes posed alongside appear diverse, although all wear secular Western clothing. Human images give way toward the end to equally cute pictures of pets (English: "dog," pronounced "[dahg]"; Mandarin: "[goh]"; Cantonese: "[gow]"), a VW beetle (German: "auto"; Hindi: "[gar-lee]"), and other subjects. They're all capped by a final view of a diapered butt (Italian: "arrivederci," etc.). Many polylingual picture books, such as Ben Handicott's Hello Atlas, illustrated by Kenard Pak (2016), offer samples of a greater number of languages, but along with its large vocabulary this positively shines with visual appeal. It may be one of those rare board books that draws more interest in repeat visits from older sharers than younger ones. A prodigious polylingual production. (Board book/novelty. 6 mos.-5) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
