Lizi Boyd

Sometimes, I just... don't get it. I liked the illustrations in this, but the seek-and-find aspect just bewildered me. Granted, I may just need more sleep or was particularly dim on the day I read this, but if I don't get it, will a baby?

The book is a tall rectangle, 12x6 inches. There are seven spreads, the first three having half-page flaps you can alternate to change the picture. The spreads show a busy landscape, with trees, composed of simple circles and geometric shapes, animals marked show more with black heads and one white eye, and a closer look reveals ears and tails of animals hiding. The text of the first spread reads, "Let's play! Turtle peeks. Butterfly dips. Rabbit listens. Who is hiding?" If you turn the top flap, a big tree with birds, set against a yellow background is shown. Turn the bottom flap and you will see the scene beneath the tree; the ears belonged to a raccoon and there's a pond with fish. The next two spreads follow the same pattern.

The fourth spread answers the question, "Who is hiding?" with "No one!" showing most of the animals together on one page. The next pages show the scene at night, with all the animals sleeping, including the nocturnal animals (fox, raccoon).

The line of the flaps is just below the spiky blue thing and the pair of blue ears.

The art is high-contrast, but it just struck me as too busy. There are little black lines and circles inside the circles of the trees, and then there are drips and bits of color, the triangles of fish, strips of grass, hills and flowers, and little ears and tails everywhere. While it would be fun for toddlers to browse through and point out things, it's not really a seek-and-find book and it's too busy for babies.

Verdict: The art is whimsical and attractive - it makes me think of something I'd see in a children's bedroom in Ikea (That's not a dig btw, I like that stuff) but it's too sophisticated for littler ones and not clear enough on the seek-and-find aspects for older readers. An additional purchase for board book collections. However, if you have patrons who like this, there are going to be additional books in the series.

ISBN: 9781452170961; Published April 2019 by Chronicle; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

A squirrel pairs books with readers.

This is a sweet book that celebrates both nature and books. I love the evocative language for the sun, clouds, water, etc. The animals are all anthropomorphized as readers, with Squirrel finding books that match them (e.g., a blue book with a lily pad on its cover is given to Frog to read). I do love a visualization of the library concept of "every book its reader, every reader their book."

The illustrations are cheery and colorful, perfectly fitting the show more book's tone. I bet little kids, especially in a one-on-one setting, will love the half-page flaps. Sad to admit it, but I found them a little confusing because I wasn't sure when I was supposed to turning and what I was supposed to be reading next. Luckily the story is uncomplicated enough that it didn't really seem to matter if I read things in one order (top to bottom) or another (left to right across the full page spread). show less

The young narrator of Lizi Boyd's I Wrote You a Note tracks her missive as various creatures, from a turtle to a snail, find and then discard her letter. What she really wants to know, however, is if her friend has received her invitation to play...

I really loved Boyd's artwork here, with its subtle but appealing color palette, and its stylized animal characters. Although not particularly wowed by the narrative, I did find the repetitive structure, in which a series of animals each find the show more note and attempt to use it in different ways, interesting, and think it might engage younger children. I also liked the engagement with the natural world that is highlighted throughout. I was on the fence with this one, regarding rating, but I upped it to three stars, because I enjoyed the visuals so much, and because I think other readers might make more of the text than I did. show less

When Arlo drifts off to sleep in this creative picture-book tribute to the power of the imagination and of make-believe, his toys carry on, working on Act 2 of the play they were all putting together. Their shenanigans, beautifully captured on the die-cute pages, wake Arlo, who joins them for Act 3, before everyone finally goes to bed...

Like I Wrote You a Note, the only other title from author/illustrator Lizi Boyd that I have read, I enjoyed the artwork in Night Play immensely. Created in show more gouache, it has a charming almost-collage-like feeling to it, that perfectly matches the stage/play theme of the story. The die-cut pages at the center of the book enliven the reading experiences, and suggest such things as stage curtains and scene shifts. I don't know that the text here was particularly strong (something I noticed too in I Wrote You a Note), but the central story idea is so well-matched to the artwork that I enjoyed this one all the same. Recommended to anyone looking for new picture-books about bedtime, imaginative play, and the curious activities our playthings get up to, after we fall asleep. show less