Brill’s tale tips the didactic scale, but the importance of rules needs to reach dragon-loving kids as well.
A tiny dragon wants to fly—and picks up important life lessons as well.
Little Wing is determined. Today will be the day to finally fly! But with wings fluttering and tiny legs pumping, it always ends the same way: “Flip. / Flap. / Flop….” Jumping from the top step? “Flip. / Flap. / Flop….” What about running down a hill for extra speed? “Flip. / Flap. / Flop….” But a dragon never gives up. Suddenly, at the most unexpected moment, Little Wing is “Flip! / Flap! / FLYING!” Little Wing’s mama is proud, but she needs to impart three very important flying rules. Little Wing, however, is too excited to listen. The little tot flies too high (the opposite of the first rule), flies too far (the second), and flies off without Mama (the third). The tiny dragon is now in a dark forest, all alone. Bravado gone, and lip quivering, Little Wing is “Flip. / Flap. / Frightened!” Luckily, Mama is not far behind. Told in first person (first dragon?), Little Wing’s journey from frustration to egocentric bluster to fear seems a bit linear and quick but is true to a toddler’s sensibilities. Bell’s digital illustrations (combining pencils, watercolors, and Photoshop) depict a bigheaded red dragonlet with tiny purple wings; Little Wing looks the opposite of aerodynamic, but that’s part of the charm.
Brill’s tale tips the didactic scale, but the importance of rules needs to reach dragon-loving kids as well. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-236033-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying.
A story-reading dragon—what’s not to like?
Duncan the Dragon loves to read. But the stories so excite him, his imagination catches fire—and so do his books, leaving him wondering about the endings. Does the captain save the ship? Do aliens conquer the Earth? Desperate to reach the all-important words “The End” (“like the last sip of a chocolate milk shake”), he tries reading in the refrigerator, in front of a bank of electric fans, and even in a bathtub filled with ice. Nothing works. He decides to ask a friend to read to him, but the raccoon, possum, and bull all refuse. Weeping, Duncan is ready to give up, but one of his draconic tears runs “split-splat into a mouse,” a book-loving mouse! Together they battle sea monsters, dodge icebergs, and discover new lands, giving rise to a fast friendship. Driscoll’s friendly illustrations are pencil sketches painted in Adobe Photoshop; she varies full-bleed paintings with vignettes surrounded by white space, imaginary scenes rendered in monochrome to set them apart. Duncan himself is green, winged, and scaly, but his snout is unthreateningly bovine, and he wears red sneakers with his shoelaces untied—a nicely vulnerable touch. Though there are lots of unusual friendship stories in picture books, the vivid colors, expressive faces, and comic details make this one likely to be a storytime hit.
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75507-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An innocuous telling, sure to slip in effortlessly with other firetruck books.
A little fire engine discovers what it’s good at by eliminating what it is not.
Who knew disappointment could be such a keen teaching tool? Narrator Flash is eager to demonstrate firefighting prowess, but every attempt to “save the day” yields bubkes. First Flash is too little to handle a fire at the airport (Crash, an airport crash tender, handles that one). Next Flash is too short to help a tall building that’s on fire (that honor goes to Laddie, a turntable ladder). Finally, an airplane and a foam tender together solve a forest-fire problem. Only when a bridge is suddenly blocked by snow, with all the other trucks on the wrong side of it, does Flash have the opportunity to save a pet shelter that’s ablaze. (Readers will note characters in shirtsleeves at the beginning of the book, so this is a very unexpected snowstorm.) Calvert deftly finds a new way to introduce kids to different kinds of firefighting vehicles by setting up Flash in opposition to situations where it’s just not the best truck for the job. The anthropomorphized engines and planes irritatingly include unnecessary eyelashes on trucks with feminine pronouns, but this is mitigated by the fact that the girls get cool names like “Crash” and save the day first. Enthusiastic if unremarkable digital art presents both firefighters and citizens in an array of genders and races.
An innocuous telling, sure to slip in effortlessly with other firetruck books. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-4178-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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