This sweet, nearly wordless tale is likely to find an appreciative audience among cat lovers and children just beginning to...
A stray cat finds a new home after hopping onto a passing bus.
A simply drawn calico cat stares out from the cover of Kim’s debut. After investigating the contents of an outdoor trash can, the cat ventures into an open doorway. A storekeeper shoos the cat back out, leaving it to sit disconsolately on the sidewalk. As snow begins to fall, a bus pulls up, but the bus driver is unwelcoming. Then a second bus arrives. Snuggled onto an empty seat, the cat is joined by an elderly Asian gentleman who carries it home to a young girl, probably his granddaughter. The text is extremely brief, only 15 words. Most are noises (the “clang” of the trash can, the “whoosh!” of the bus door), a few are simple phrases (“Scat, cat!”), and there’s one rumbling “Purrrrrrrrrr.” The artwork combines pastels and colored pencils with digital techniques. Double-page spreads, single pages, vignettes, and panels offer plenty to look at and convey the storyline clearly. Black outlines and somewhat blocky shapes give the art a childlike feel, while muted colors reinforce the wintry setting. Faces are occasionally awkwardly drawn, but residents of the city are ethnically and racially diverse, and the inclusion of a female African-American bus driver is particularly welcome.
This sweet, nearly wordless tale is likely to find an appreciative audience among cat lovers and children just beginning to sound words out on their own. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3647-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.
Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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