Soothing words and steady rhythm make a solid bedtime story for young listeners who won’t look too closely.
A trip back in time on a train ride across the country.
Sometime in the first half of the 20th century (judging by the clothing and men’s hats), a coal-powered steam engine, pulling both boxcars and passenger coaches, travels overnight across the country. Romano’s rhythmic poem is filled with repeated sounds, internal rhymes, and evocative imagery. “Locomotive roars to life”; “Wheat fields sway their golden greetings.” Some lines are repeated like mini refrains: “straight and speedy,” “chug and huff,” “squeal and creak.” Debut picture-book artist Soon’s digital illustrations have a soothing retro look and color. They include some lovely twilight shading. But they don’t always quite sync with the story. The train first travels west into the sunset. It crosses hills and plains, passes rivers and farms, races stallions, passes through tunnels, and goes over a bridge into a “drowsy town” by the sea where the sun comes up—still ahead of the train. The artist has added passengers, a family of three, all pale-skinned, to the visual narrative. Father and child enjoy a late cafe-car dinner. Mother loses her hat as she looks out from the open platform on the last car. After their arrival, “Worn conductor yawns and stretches.” The yawning figure in the illustration holds a cup of steaming coffee, which he’d better put down first.
Soothing words and steady rhythm make a solid bedtime story for young listeners who won’t look too closely. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62414-657-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Should appeal to all the little grump trucks hauling their feelings about.
When dump trucks get angry (really, really angry), head for the hills!
Little Dump Truck is “the happiest member of the construction crew.” Assisting everyone from Excavator to Bulldozer, she hauls her load merrily. But sometimes things just don’t go her way. In rapid succession, dirt is blown in her face, a tire is punctured, and a flock of birds mistake her for a lavatory. Now she’s Little Grump Truck, and the exceedingly poor advice from her co-workers (“Ignore it. You’ll be fine”; “Shake it off!”) pushes her too far. After Little Grump Truck unloads (figuratively and literally) on her colleagues, everyone else has the “grumpies” too. It isn’t until she closes her eyes and focuses that Little Dump Truck is able to clear her mind and lighten her mood. Apologies are in order, and soon everything is humming (for the time being, anyway). Though the narrative doesn’t drill the message home, both child and adult readers alike will hopefully pick up on the fact that pithy aphorisms are maddeningly unhelpful when one is in a bad mood. Gray skies accompany the dump truck’s mood, which is depicted as an ever morphing agglomeration of hard, black scribbles. The accompanying art serves its purpose, investing its trucks with personality via time-honored headlight, windshield-wiper, and grille facial features. Little Dump Truck has a purple cab and green bed and a single lash on each headlight eye. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Should appeal to all the little grump trucks hauling their feelings about. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30081-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Traffic jams, it turns out, can be good fun, and children might even learn a word or two.
A genial elementary reader that taps into the electricity generated by Brian Biggs’ Everything Goes: On Land (2011).
This book has been designed to share with very beginning readers, as Bourne’s text amply illustrates in its simple repetitions: “ ‘Woof, woof, woof.’…The dog wags his tail. The dog does not want to stop. The dog wants to see.” Then there is the truck honking—“Honk, honk, honk!”—at the tree that has fallen across the road, causing the traffic jam that is the story’s pivot. Though the text can feel overly purpose-driven, and the words more to be absorbed than befriended, such is not the case with Abbott’s artwork—“in the style of Brian Biggs,”according to the title page—which is amiability itself. The line work is crayon bold, and the color so saturated it is thick as fudge. But there is something else lurking in the illustrations, something Claymation-tangible, which may arouse the urge to bring them home and introduce them to mother. If one of the objects of an early-early reader is to keep the reader focused, this artwork immeasurably helps.
Traffic jams, it turns out, can be good fun, and children might even learn a word or two. (Early reader. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-195819-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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