Tiny Overlord Reviews: 5 New Board Books

Have you met my niece? Jocelynn – Jocie, for short. We also call her the Tiny Overlord. She’s adorable and hilarious, and she loves books.

Loves them.

This auntie couldn’t be prouder.

So Jocie and her mom and I were all thrilled when Simon & Schuster recently sent me a box of five new board books to review. So of course, I had to recruit the Tiny Overlord herself — a true lover of board books — to help with today’s post!

**The Tiny Overlord’s Favorite: Dear Zoo: Animal Shapes by Rod Campbell**

The wee overlord is really into animals right now, so she loved all the critters in Dear Zoo: Animal Shapes. She also liked the minimal text — simple words and short phrases she could learn and “read” aloud with mom — and the die cut pages made it even more fun.

This one was a BIG HIT!

The Tiny Overlord says: “We started the book and I had no idea what would happen. I personally wanted to keep the elephant but my mother explained that our house was just not big enough. I tried to convince mommy to move and that we could get a bigger house but she was not willing to budge.”

**The Tiny Overlord’s Runner-Up: Where is Baby’s Belly Button? by Karen Katz**

This is a classic, and for good reason. Jocie actually already had this book in Spanish, so the English language version of Where is Baby’s Belly Button? was a twist on a book she already loved. She really enjoyed lifting the flaps and pointing out the baby in each picture. This gets the #1 vote for fun activity!

Mom’s only complaint was that the flaps can get torn if Jocie lifts them too vigorously, and her frequent warnings to be gentle with the book meant the Overlord was a little cautious with each page.

“These stories, they do please me. REPEAT!”

**Mom’s Favorite/Auntie Sara’s Favorite: Cinderella and Snow White by Chloe Perkins**

Both Mom and Auntie Sara loved these multicultural retellings of classic fairy tales. From the new “Once Upon a World” series, each book features a simplified retelling of a well-known fairy tale, but set in a different country. The setting and culture comes to life through illustrations by artists from those cultures. In this case, Cinderella took place in Spain and was illustrated by artist Sandra Equihua. Snow White took place in Japan, as illustrated by Misa Saburi.

At only 20 months old, the stories themselves were a bit too wordy and complicated for the Tiny Overlord to follow along — and as such, she preferred Cinderella to Snow White, simply because the illustrations were more colorful. But older children will certainly appreciate these beautiful versions of two favorite stories.

**The Disappointing Dud: Dinosaur Dance! by Sandra Boynton**

Auntie Sara had high hopes for this one. Firstly, it’s Sandra Boynton! Secondly, DINOSAURS! And thirdly, dancing dinosaurs.

But ultimately the long dinosaur names proved too much for the Tiny Overlord. She didn’t know them and couldn’t pronounce them, and thus the book was lost on her. We’re saving Dinosaur Dance! for when she’s a little older.