The absence of a well-told storyline makes the book feel static, but kids who love cars will enjoy this crazy compendium and...
Can there be room for yet another picture book about cars? Apparently.
This Swedish import (by way of England) provides an original take on this overstuffed genre. The format could not be simpler. There is no connecting narrative, and text is limited to one- or two-word labels for a heady mix of fantasy and traditional vehicles of every conceivable type and purpose, most apparently arbitrarily arrayed on the pages. Bright flat colors and whimsical shapes dominate. The cars depicted feel like a stream of consciousness. Some are funny or silly: “marmalade car,” “sausage car,” “rocket car,” “chewing-gum car,” and, inevitably, “poo car.” A few are a bit obscure for most young children, such as “Mondrian car” or “Jules Verne car.” Some spreads are thematic, Richard Scarry–style, showing real vehicles associated with specific environments, including mining, hospital, agriculture, road-building, and an airport. The book includes an index to all the cars depicted and endpapers showing many of the vehicles in a cityscape. The book is apparently oblivious to the environmental implications of fossil-fueled transport—unless including the “greenhouse car,” the “chimney car,” and the “wood stove car” on the same spread as the “stressed car” is making a subtle point?
The absence of a well-told storyline makes the book feel static, but kids who love cars will enjoy this crazy compendium and will be engaged by the imaginative take on a traditional subject . (Informational picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-911171-01-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
A Christmas train book that gets derailed by a lacking story arc.
Not quite the Polar Express….
Sobel’s rhyming text fails to deliver a clear premise for the eponymous goodnight train’s Christmas Eve progress through the pages, and Huliska-Beith’s acrylic paintings embellished with fabric and paper collage don’t clarify the storytelling. At the start of the picture book, a bevy of anthropomorphic animals decorates a rather rickety-looking engine, and then human children gather around and pile into train cars that look like beds and cribs. The train follows a track, seemingly in pursuit of Santa’s sleigh, but to what end isn’t clear. They travel “through a town of gingerbread” and through the woods to find the sleigh blocking the tracks and the reindeer snoozing while, mystifyingly, Santa counts some sheep. Perching the sleigh on the train’s cowcatcher, they all proceed to the North Pole, where the “elves all cheer. / Santa’s here until next year!” But then the goodnight train just…leaves, “heading home on Christmas Eve.” Was this a dream? It definitely wasn’t a story with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. Santa’s face is never seen; the human children and elves are diverse.
A Christmas train book that gets derailed by a lacking story arc. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-61840-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name.
A brief rhyming board book for toddlers.
Spurr's earlier board books (In the Garden and At the Beach, both 2012; In the Woods, 2013) featured an adventuresome little boy. Her new slice-of-life story stars an equally joyful little girl who takes pleasure in flying a new kite while not venturing far off the walkway. Oliphant's expressive and light-filled watercolors clearly depict the child's emotions—eager excitement on the way to the park, delight at the kite's flight in the wind, shock when the kite breaks free, dejection, and finally relief and amazement. The rhymes work, though uneven syllable counts in some stanzas interrupt the smooth flow of the verse. The illustrations depict the child with her mass of windblown curls, brown skin, and pronounced facial features as African-American. Her guardian (presumably her mother) is also brown-skinned. It is refreshing to see an African-American family settled comfortably in a suburban setting with single-family homes and a park where the family dog does not need to be leashed.
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56145-854-7
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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