Bitsy View: Llamas, Bears, and Kisses

I know that I don't usually review books written for children, but I read a lot of them (both for Gabe and my job). So, I thought maybe once a week (or really whenever I get the chance) I'd write a few short mini-reviews--bitsy views!--of some children's and infants' books. If you guys especially like or hate this idea (or any other idea that I post on this blog), please let me know in the comments below, and I'll take it into consideration. Here we go!

I'm going to try and keep these organized with a short summary, a highlight, and one or two other comments on each book. I'm also going to rate each one with one to five suns (one being "I hated it" and five being "I loved it"). Hopefully this will keep the reviews brief and to-the-point to help you pick out books for the child in your life!

Llama Llama Zippity-Zoom by Anna Dewdney   
     --Llama llama and his goat friend are playing outside while fun, sing-song rhymes form the narrative.
     --Highlight: Llama llama red pajama is riding his bike and the rhyme builds up to "zoom zoom zoom"
     --The build-up on all of the rhymes is good, and this is just generally a fun, playful book.

Old Bear and His Cub by Olivier Dunrea     
     --Old Bear and Little Cub (a father and his son, presumably) go through a day (eating breakfast, playing in the snow, etc) taking care of each other and remembering that they love each other very much.
     --Highlight: Little Cub switches places with Old Bear about halfway through the book, becoming the caretaker after his father catches a cold. Little Cub tells Old Bear to put a scarf on, brings him tea, reads him a book, and cuddles with him to go to sleep.
     --I like how they convince each other to listen: "Old Bear stared hard at Little Cub."
     --The drawings in this book are very beautiful.

All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri    
     --Different animals give each other different kids of kisses, depending on which animal they are. It ends with a goodnight kiss from a (human) mother to her child.
     --Highlight: "Little Dove loves Cooo kisses."
     --This book strikes me as a little strange. Sounds are used as types of kisses, and this doesn't really work for some animals. Cows giving "Mooo kisses," for example. It felt a little awkward to me while reading most of the book.
     --The colored pencil drawings of the animals and the scenery are very pretty.

That's it for now, guys! Hopefully you enjoyed it, and I'll have my next Bitsy View for you in a week or so!