A fine yuletide choice for the vehicle-obsessed.
Santa, his signature sack and a reindeer companion travel by a variety of means of transport to make some special deliveries.
Subsequent double-page spreads show Santa riding on a snowmobile, a canoe and a bus; at one point, he even water-skis behind a speedboat. The last two pages show Santa, sack now empty, flying on his reindeer and wishing the reader a “Merry Christmas!” Aside from this holiday greeting, the only text is a simple one-word caption naming Santa’s vehicle of the moment, so it is not entirely clear why Santa has ditched his iconic reindeer-drawn sleigh. Like others in the Everything Goes series, Biggs’ cartoons, all drawn with a chunky line, are bold and inviting. With a good variety of vehicles on display and plenty of quirky humor, particularly the scene of Santa riding a bicycle with a pooped reindeer holding the oversized sack balanced on the handlebars, there is enough here to hold the interests of toddlers and their parents alike.
A fine yuletide choice for the vehicle-obsessed. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-195817-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sure to inspire calls of “READ IT AGAIN!” (Board book. 1-3)
A chunky board book with ingenious gatefolds, flaps, die-cuts, and construction trucks galore.
Like its series predecessors, this title has ample toddler appeal. Not only is its construction-site theme a passion for many children, its bold colors and thoughtful design will engage little hands and eyes as they pore over the pages. After the first two spreads show a wrecking ball smashing and crashing to open the book, two children peer out, asking, “WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?” and “CAN I LOOK, TOO?” Their pages open up as side-by-side gatefolds to reveal a vast scene with “SO MANY TRUCKS! SO MANY WORKERS!” Subsequent spreads home in on individual vehicles plied by racially diverse workers and their respective roles in building up a city block. Layout includes gatefolds that open vertically up and down as well as horizontally left and right, and many pages are shaped to visually echo the vehicles and objects depicted. While such familiar fare as a bulldozer, dump truck, and a crane appear, less-common vehicles and equipment emerge as well, with some of the more dramatic gatefolds and die-cuts revealing a tunnel borer, a massive bridge builder that spans valleys, and sky cranes hovering above like superpowered helicopters. The book culminates as workers take a lunch break and then throw themselves back into work to “BUILD, BUILD, BUILD ALL OVER TOWN!”
Sure to inspire calls of “READ IT AGAIN!” (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2569-2
Page Count: 90
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
Clean design and invitations to action will help young builders become readers—expect to find this book in the sand box or...
This busy board book introduces five colors, five construction vehicles, and five physical movements.
Each spread begins with the same two couplets: “Noisy Yellow Digger meets someone new. / ‘What is your name and what do you do?’ ” An orange crane, green steamroller, blue dump truck, and red bulldozer each reply, “I’ll show you what I do....” Behind a full-page flap, each truck uses simple, first-person language to explain its basic function in relation to the yellow digger. On the opposite side of the now-open flap cheerful construction-worker bears invite child readers to mimic each vehicle’s action. Opening the flap also produces a truck sound that plays briefly. (The book’s speaker is in the rear cover, so readers may need to take care not to muffle it.) A radio appears with all the vehicles on the final spread, and the flap opens to reveal the bears dancing. The sounds seem almost incidental; the book’s strengths are clear, consistent illustrations and repetitive language. For example, the scene changes with each page, but the digger is always the same, and details (a bee, butterfly, or cloud) shown on the closed page can be found in the same place when the flap is opened. Small print on the back cover cautions that the sounds are light-activated, which makes this a poor choice for bedtime.
Clean design and invitations to action will help young builders become readers—expect to find this book in the sand box or on the road rug. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5892-5242-4
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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