A sizable gallery but, overall, a monotonous one.
Fans of trucks, trains, aircraft, and other conveyances large and small will find dozens gathered here, lined up neatly in squads according to function from “Demolition” to “Space Travel.”
Though most of the vehicles are easily identifiable by sight, small labels will clue in readers unfamiliar with specialized monikers like “wheel excavator” or vehicles not found in the United States, such as the colorfully decorated Pakistani bus and a motorized “pooper scooper scooter” from France. Cartoon passengers or other human figures convey a sense of size, and with occasional concessions, the floating, wheeled or winged machines are depicted at least close to relative scale on each spread. But the pleasures of poring over all the transports, earth movers and Earth leavers will pall quickly even for confirmed enthusiasts: So flat and generic are the images that many with similar purposes look like variations on the same shape. Moreover, an (rather skimpy) assortment of jointed arms, sliders, spinners and flaps that lift to provide cutaway views create at best only localized feelings of movement or visual drama. Also, the titular “ultimate” begs the lack of military or (aside from a space shuttle on the final spread) historical vehicles on view.
A sizable gallery but, overall, a monotonous one. (Pop-up informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-2-8480-1942-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lightweight quest with a climactic surprise.
A treasure map doesn’t specify all the hazards on the way to a pirate’s hoard.
Modeled on “The House that Jack Built,” the cumulative narrative takes a young buccaneer and his eyepatch-wearing dog over diverse terrains (“This is the swamp where bullfrogs sing / past the forest where monkeys swing / over the mountains snowy and cold / on the island of spice and gold”) to where Pirate Frank’s treasure lies. Unfortunately, when the lad arrives at the designated spot, he’s shocked to discover that the treasure is guarded by Pirate (Sally) Frank herself (“She’s not on the map!”). Back over the island to his ship she chases him as the rhyme unreels. Tuya depicts both young freebooters as white children in typical pirate garb (with, for Sally, the addition of a ruffled tutu) and places them in pleasant landscapes replete with, as occasion demands, monkeys, frogs, or flowers. As the lad looks like a nebbish and his nemesis, who sports orange Pippi Longstocking–style braids, seems only slightly fiercer, the contretemps has a playful air.
A lightweight quest with a climactic surprise. (map) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9644-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
For readers who are going places.
Sometimes getting there is half the fun!
Pablo and his friends Henry, Lily, Mei, and Padma (the kids present as Latinx, white, black, Asian, and South Asian, respectively) decide to go to Coney Island as a fun way to end the summer. Pablo’s dad, who, like his son, has brown skin, agrees to accompany the children. “But how do we get there?” asks Lily. Pablo suggests that they use maps, and then he excitedly plots out their journey: First they will walk to the bus stop; then they will take a bus to the subway; then they will arrive at Coney Island. A true cartophile, Pablo experiences a moment of worry that his friends won’t “think it [is] fun to follow a map,” but his map-reading expertise ends up helping the children be patient as they traverse the city. The best map of all is the one that shows all of the fun rides on Coney Island. An activity suggestion in the backmatter prompts readers to make maps of their own neighborhoods, potentially extending this title’s use beyond its accessibility and support of emergent-literacy skills and into the realm of map-reading, too. As in her other work in this series, Ng-Benitez’s warm, engaging illustrations help define the individual, diverse characters while creating a sense of vibrancy and excitement in the urban setting.
For readers who are going places. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62014-569-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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