Not a first choice.
Pipes get clogged and readers must help.
A steampunk-lite factory with curving, outdoor chutes and tubes—the whole thing possibly floating in the sky as its own planet—shoots colors into the air. The scene is brightly colored. On the second spread, the factory morphs into a black-line drawing of itself, not a single bit colored in; no color sprays out. “Uh-oh”—the color is “blocked,” and while some readers may wonder how a blockage of new liquid has rendered the whole factory suddenly black-and-white, others will dig into the instructions on helping. Shaking the book unclogs pipes; turning the book all the way around inexplicably straightens out twisted pipes; turning it sideways dumps out excess color. As primaries flow, they become secondaries; paint-y chaos builds until the bespectacled host turtle, overwhelmed, pleads, “Shut the boooooooooooook!” The color-mixing, paint textures, and splatters are visually fascinating, and the complex pipes are cool, but the paint flow and instructions seem arbitrary, and the illustrations are disjointed. Miles’ mixed media on board includes some stock images, and while it’s unclear which ones, that’s hardly a recommendation. Hervé Tullet’s Mix It Up (2014) is far more luscious, and Eric Telchin and Diego Funck’s Black and White Factory (2016) covers very similar ground, down to animal hosts wearing glasses; both feature reader participation.
Not a first choice. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-944822-82-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Familius
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and subtle book on sharing.
Rudy’s pink sweater is missing. Readers are invited to follow him as he searches for the sweater.
Rudy is a blue creature with a piggy snout, bunny ears, a thin, tufted tail, and a distraught look on his face. His beloved pink sweater is gone. “It was a bit too small and showed his belly button. But it was his favorite.” Where could it be? In a search that doubles as a countdown from 10 to one, Rudy makes his way through the different rooms of the house—top to bottom, inside and outside. As readers open the wardrobe door, “TEN tumbling cats” provide the first hint as to the sweater’s whereabouts. Following the pink yarn that runs across the pages, readers encounter some surprising creatures in each location—including a crocodile sitting in an outhouse busily knitting—as well as flaps to open and die cuts to peek through. Just as he’s about to give up hope—someone must’ve taken it, but “who would love wearing it as much as he did?”—the answer is revealed: “Trudy! His number ONE sister. The sweater fit her perfectly.” And, as is the nature of stories with a happy ending, Rudy gets a new sweater that fits him, from the knitting crocodile, of course. Plot, interactivity, vocabulary, and counting all contribute in making this an engaging book for the upper edge of the board-book range.
A sweet and subtle book on sharing. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3679-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Formulaic fare that will nevertheless charm devoted followers.
A few familiar friends explore gratitude.
Daywalt’s crayons have observed many holidays, from Christmas to Earth Day. On Thanksgiving, these anthropomorphic school supplies wax (pun intended) poetic about their favorite things to draw. “Blue is thankful for blueberries.” (The accompanying illustration depicts the stubby crayon leaping into a pile of the fruit.) Black, on a page topped by dark scribbles, “is thankful for night skies.” In an aside, Black adds, “Big, beautiful night skies I get to color in all by myself!” (Blue is perfectly fine with this.) Pink pipes up with “Three glorious words. Amazon. River. Dolphins”—which may spur readers to research these creatures. The tale turns a bit meta, too. Teal is thankful for family—both Blue and Green. Red, surrounded by hearts, is thankful for Neon Green Highlighter, who was accidentally dropped into the crayon box—a “dreamboat” for sure. Recognizable jokes from previous works make appearances; these callbacks will delight staunch fans, though others will find them tiring. Standard cheer and platitudes abound; the crayons are ultimately most grateful for each other.
Formulaic fare that will nevertheless charm devoted followers. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593690574
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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