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
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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