Review by Booklist Review
From the title on, toddlers will have as much fun with the sounds of the words as the physical facts in this picture book, which starts with the tiny detail of the belly button: Looking closer, if you squint, you can see a little lint. As in The Tushy Book (2009), the uncluttered pictures in bright gouache and watercolor and elemental shapes show the action, whether it is eating ( Bellies love carrots and birthday cakes, / tofu, tacos, chocolate shakes ) or belly flopping in the water or giving a puppy a tickly belly rub-a-dub. Kids will enjoy acting out the wriggly words.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Bellies, we love you smooth or hairy./ On the mountains! On the prairie!" With snappy rhymes, bright bold graphics, and a winning sense of playfulness, Manushkin follows The Tushy Book with a salute to the body's middle ground, this time teaming up with Yaccarino (All the Way to America). Bellies are a receptacle for lint ("Where it comes from, no one knows!"), and remind us of where we came from ("Once upon a time, your mummy/ grew you-right inside her tummy"); they're where "everything lands," food-wise, and essential to both a belly flop and belly dance. With a saturated palette, streamlined verve, and visual winks reminiscent of midcentury poster art, Yaccarino makes every page pop and never runs out of ways to render and frame a conceit: two loosely sketched figures display the difference between innies and outies, while a spread dedicated to pink, brown, round, and flat bellies has echoes of Mondrian. He's especially good at creating images with a mirroring element: one standout spread shows identical curly-headed twins reaching across the page to tickle each other's bellies with feathers. Ages 2-5. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-This book encourages children to think positively about a body part that is often hidden away or rejected. What begins as a riddle written across two bare midriffs-"Every daughter, every son,/has their own-but only one-with a button in the middle./Can you guess this little riddle?"-ends with an affirmation: "Bellies, we love you!/Bellies so clever-/you are a part of us forever!" Children will see how abdomens vary in appearance and why they are an important part of our anatomy. Gouache illustrations of belly buttons, belly flops, etc., add playfulness to the text. The animal bellies that appear beside the human ones give examples of the little ways we are all the same. Read Manushkin's The Tushy Book (Feiwel & Friends, 2009) to introduce children to another unappreciated body part.-Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Looking closer, if you squint, / you can see a little lint." This fitting follow-up to Manushkin's The Tushy Book is part anatomy lesson, part self-esteem builder, part riotous joyride. That last attribute is driven by Yaccarino, whose fearless color choices and no-frills renditions of humans, pets, and other creatures couldn't be a better match for this content. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
belly for the front of the torso, with one exception: "Once upon a time your mummy / grew you--right inside her tummy." She humorously points out that belly-button lint is kind of mysterious ("Where it comes from, no one knows!"). When the easy-to-read rhymes start to stretch thin, relying on lists ("Parade your bellies from here to Spain. / Bellies in the desert! / Bellies in the rain!"), Yaccarino plumps them up with an artful twinkle: A slim, floating, belly-buttoned green alien in a white bikini accompanies "In outer space! In a bikini!" His playful full-page gouaches zip nimbly from thought to thought and invest the whole with a generous dollop of whimsy. Delightful art adds panache to this simple ode to a familiar body part. (Picture book. 2-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
