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SARA SASSAFRAS AND THE TIGUAR

Name: SARA SASSAFRAS AND THE TIGUAR
Author: Cat. E. Amick
ISBN: 978-0-692-87284-0

by Cat. E. Amick illustrated by George Norman Lippert ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 20, 2017

A pleasant, if not groundbreaking, addition to the animalcentric children’s book canon.

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Sara Sassafras and a variety of zoo animals star in Amick’s debut board book, which aims to help raise funds for Pennsylvania’s Erie Zoo.

After visiting the zoo with her parents, where she saw many different creatures, young Sara has a dream about meeting a tiger. He changes first to a cheetah, then a leopard, and finally a jaguar; he thanks her for showing him that he can “be a cat of all different stripes.” Sara, when she awakes, calls her new friend a “tiguar,” a blend of a tiger and a jaguar. She understands that he exists only in her thoughts but that she can summon him when she plays with stuffed animals. The fairly standard story appeals to very young readers’ love of animals and to the importance of imagination. The text occasionally rhymes, but it’s not in strict poetic form; however, it does maintain a rhythmic cadence that youngsters will enjoy. Although the story is about animals and inventiveness, adults can easily interpolate ideas about openness to change. Lippert’s colorful ink-and-watercolor illustrations are charming; some feature the heavy use of turquoise and orange-ish reds (Sara and her parents all have reddish hair), lending them the feel of kids’ books of decades past.

A pleasant, if not groundbreaking, addition to the animalcentric children’s book canon.

Pub Date: July 20, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-692-87284-0

Page Count: 22

Publisher: Read Something New

Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S SPRINGTIME

From the Little Blue Truck series

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 2018

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.

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Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.

This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)