A pleasant tale about battling negativity.
An anthropomorphic drop of sunshine realizes that positivity comes from within in this cheerful picture book.
Yellow sunshine drop Piper and her friends live in a beautiful garden. One day, she follows a ladybug to a “strange place”—a city full of garbage and unhappy creatures, including a “slacken,” a “gluckel,” and a “grewter,” among others—where her well wishes are met with complaints. Each time, she’s hit with an “ugly” that dims her glow. Surrounded by naysayers and abandoned by the ladybug, she finally hits a low point. But when she breathes and focuses on what’s inside her, “The warmth grows. And grows.” Her glow gets rid of the uglies and encourages the dour city dwellers to follow her home. The narrative emphasizes the importance of breathing deeply and focusing on positive emotions rather than others’ unkind words. Haughee’s text is full of appealing nonsense terms and unusual vocabulary words (absorb, slinks) to challenge newly independent readers. Veselinovic’s bright, full-color illustrations reflect Piper’s sunny attitude and darken when appropriate, making her ultimate triumph shine more brightly. The emphasis on positivity makes for a fun comparison with the author and illustrator’s earlier collaboration, Grumbler(2019), which appears to be set in the same world.
A pleasant tale about battling negativity.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-949935-34-9
Page Count: 35
Publisher: Orange Blossom Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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