Gentle and charming.
A cat walks through a gray landscape, collecting colors for a surprise project.
Cat sits on a stretch of medium-gray ground, licking her paw. Gray clouds containing neat spiral patterns hover calmly above her. Cat’s activities are supposedly “gray-day things,” but she sports a tiny smile. Suddenly she opens her eyes wide: it’s time to “collect some colors.” Traversing her landscape, she observes green leaves on a tree; immediately afterward, a green spot appears on her white coat. Next, she breathes in “the red smell of roses,” and a red spot joins the green one. As Cat collects colored splotches on her fur, the backgrounds stay gray—save for Cat’s fur and its increasing colored dots, everything is gray except each spread’s featured hue. The final color she collects is yellow, from the moon, and then she disappears into a tall stand of upright gray leaves for the night. “Cat?” asks the text at dawn, trying to coax her into sight. She doesn’t emerge, but readers get a close-up view inside the bush: there’s Cat, stretched blissfully across the spread, nursing a rainbow of kittens. Each is a color that Cat collected the night before. Anderson’s gray world is warm and softly textured—despite the spectrum of lovely surprise kittens, gray has a day in the sun here too.
Gentle and charming. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84643-761-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Beloved Little Blue takes a bit of the mystery—and fear—out of Halloween costumes.
A lift-the-flap book gives the littlest trick-or-treaters some practice identifying partygoers under their costumes.
Little Blue Truck and his buddy Toad are off to a party, and they invite readers (and a black cat) along for the ride: “ ‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’ / says Little Blue. / ‘It’s Halloween!’ / You come, too.” As they drive, they are surprised (and joined) by many of their friends in costume. “Who’s that in a tutu / striking a pose / up on the tiniest / tips of her toes? / Under the mask / who do you see?” Lifting the flap unmasks a friend: “ ‘Quack!’ says the duck. / ‘It’s me! It’s me!’ ” The sheep is disguised as a clown, the cow’s a queen, the pig’s a witch, the hen and her chick are pirates, and the horse is a dragon. Not to be left out, Little Blue has a costume, too. The flaps are large and sturdy, and enough of the animals’ characteristic features are visible under and around the costumes that little ones will be able to make successful guesses even on the first reading. Lovely curvy shapes and autumn colors fade to dusky blues as night falls, and children are sure to notice the traditional elements of a Halloween party: apple bobbing, lit jack-o’-lanterns, and punch and treats.
Beloved Little Blue takes a bit of the mystery—and fear—out of Halloween costumes. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-77253-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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