A family romp that demonstrates what a positive attitude and a bit of resourcefulness can accomplish in less-than-ideal...
A family of dogs escapes the heat of the city for a picnic by the shore, if they can only get through the traffic.
The Pickwicks and their charming puppies, Pip and Peach, hit the road in the family pickup truck only to discover that many of their neighbors have had the same idea. They are quickly passed on the road out of town by “3 squeaky jeeps,” “8 hasty hatchbacks,” and numerous other vehicles. Just as they arrive at the box-girder bridge (a detail repeated several times), they and their traveling companions discover that their means of urban egress has been closed for construction. It is a massive traffic jam! Not to worry: Pip and Peach have just the right attitude for being stuck in a jam, and soon there is a picnic party for all the waiting motorists. Though the family is of canines, as they are fairly anthropomorphic and the parents are belted in, it will likely give many readers pause that the children are riding unrestrained in the bed of the Pickwick pickup. Nevertheless, with darling cartoon illustrations, counting concepts, and all kinds of things that go, this book is sure to have broad appeal for read-alouds.
A family romp that demonstrates what a positive attitude and a bit of resourcefulness can accomplish in less-than-ideal circumstances . (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-83958-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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