Member Reviews
Ryan A. F, Librarian
By the end I know the point of this book is to ask “What is the sun to you.?” However when it starts off it describes a peach and ice cream cone and other things that are yellow like a crow's eye, etc. However as it goes on it becomes a book, or time, or a sleeping cat, and that's kind of where it loses me. The Illustrations are excellent, the color work amazing, but overall I don't care for this book and I won't be purchasing it. |
Thank you to Netgalley and Orca Publishers for an Advanced copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.
The Sun is a peach is a board book that describes the sun in a series of metaphors, comparing the sun to a peach, yolk, spool of thread, blackbird's eye, coin in your hand, shimmering cymbals, blaring trumpet, bee sting, scoop of ice cream, sleeping car, cheese pizza, time, an open book. The book closes by asking the reader "what is the sun to you?"
Though I found the book to have cute illustrations and some poetic parts, I honestly believe it will be over the head of the intended audience. One would assume a book of this length and type is written for very small children who have little to no attention span, and therefore do better with short books. Children at that developmental age lack the ability to understand comparing the sun to a bee sting or blaring trumpet. In fact, I wasn't entirely sure of the bee sting comparison, unless it is referring to a sunburn, or the ability of the sun to hurt us badly if we stare at it or stay out in it too long without sunscreen.
I am all for imagination in children's books. I was a very imaginative child myself, and to this day I love fantasy stories. When my son was very young, the books I read him were short, but they made comparisons he could already understand or that could easily be explained. For example, the children's book "Quick as a Cricket" by Audrey Woods. It uses similes, I am as quick as a cricket, as slow as a snail, as small as an ant, etc. Contradictions, and at the end, states "put them all together and you've got me!". This is easily understood or explained. I think the ability to understand "The Sun is a Peach" would require someone much older than the board book crowd.
Beautiful writing, but I believe some of the descriptors are just beyond the target age group.
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I really enjoyed the illustrations. they were colorful but in a calming, gentle way. The text was nice as well. My only problem is that board books are meant for 2 and under and the words in this book are way too sophisticated for that age group. This would be better as a picture book. It does give a nice prompt for an extended craft activity at the end. |
Meena N, Reviewer
I honestly think this book will confuse children. The idea is great, I just don’t know how well it will get through to them. |
A delightfully rich board book with wonderful illustrations comparing the sun to those things found in our everyday world. |
With warm illustrations, children will enjoy turning the pages of this charming board book. Follow along as a girl discovers all the different objects in her world that reminds her of colors. Simple text keeps reading to a minimum. A nice addition to any library's collection. |
The pictures are nice. Very colorful and all that. <img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/the-sun-is-a-peach.png" alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5584" /> But that is it. And you need more than that, even with a picture book. The book is comparing the sun to stuff. Some of the stuff I get, such as a peach and the yoke of an egg, but a spool of thread? What? A bee sting? I would say that would be red, not yellow, and swollen. Pretty nasty actually. I suppose, since it is a board book, I am asking too much of it, but, even board books have to make sense. Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. |
Reviewer 539597
*received for free from netgalley for honest review* I read the moon version of this book and again I think this book as cute but just kinda missed the mark? I suppose if youre reading this to kids under 3 it would be fine but other than that its just not there |
I requested this board book from NetGalley because I enjoy the work of illustrator Josée Bisaillon. The Sun Is a Peach has a good premise. Unfortunately, the execution is quite lacking. The book basically offers illustrated metaphors that compare various objects to the sun. The sun is a peach, an egg yolk, a blackbird's eye, a coin... Given that this is a board book, however, I expected that all of these objects would be easily comparable to the sun. This is supposed to be an introduction to metaphors, after all. But the sun is compared to a spool of yellow thread, a bee sting, a cheese pizza, time (what?), and an open book (what?!). I'm sure I could come up with ways that these things could all be compared to the sun, but I'm not three years old and I already know my way around a metaphor. Are little kids going to grasp these metaphors when the comparisons are so ambiguous? From an aesthetic perspective, the illustrations are lovely. The colour palette is appealing and the pictures highlight the words. But in a book like this, the illustrations need to be a lot more clear so that they convey the concept. If the spool of yellow thread had been drawn looking at it from one end (so that it was a circle), it would have been easier to compare it with the sun. If the cheese pizza had had more than a few pieces of mozzarella on a bed of tomato sauce, the link with the sun might have been more clear. While I appreciate what this book was trying to do, and I really have no problem with the overall concept, I thought that the execution was lacking. A book about metaphors for older children might be able to get away with comparing that big yellow ball in the sky with abstract concepts like time or an open book, but when it expects toddlers to "get it", it's kind of missed the mark. |








