Strong evidence that sometimes you really do just think you can.
A medley of aspirational sentiments and newly fashioned illustrations—both inspired by those of the classic tale.
The result is as ill wrought as it is ill conceived. Hart boils down the various versions of the original story’s major themes to a series of pithy formulations. These range from the mundane, “A positive attitude always helps when the going gets tough,” to such excruciatingly trite lines as “Remember that it’s always darkest before the dawn,” and “There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel!” He then fills in the page count with assorted tangential apothegms: “Always run on time”; “Everyone needs a little downtime for maintenance” (followed later on by “It’s okay to take a break”); “Don’t forget that everyone travels on their own track.” Evidently not having seen the final text, Howarth follows up this last with a contradictory view on the next page of two engines on the same track (“Go at your own pace!”). An earlier sequence involving a fallen tree finds it placed in three different places in as many illustrations. In general she sticks to traditional portrayals of the anthropomorphic locomotives and the toys in her diminutive scenes but gives one of the two toy dolls brown skin.
Strong evidence that sometimes you really do just think you can. (Picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-8468-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
A sunny, affirmative testimonial to the power of positive thinking.
A young teen with a stutter connects with another member of the same club: then–presidential candidate Joe Biden.
With nearly unwavering positivity Harrington presents in third person his experiences as a 13-year-old who loved to talk even though words sometimes “got caught in his mouth.” At a campaign meet and greet, he is thrilled by the candidate’s frank admission that as a teenager he too had “bumpy speech.” Feeling “truly understood for the first time,” the author overcomes his nerves to address (via video) the 2020 Democratic National Convention and to speak at the subsequent inauguration. Having realized that his stutter is “one of his greatest strengths,” he closes on a personal note: “So don’t be scared to speak up, speak out, and use your voice. You are amazing just the way you are!” With rare exceptions, Tang depicts him as a wide-eyed, confident-looking lad, whether exchanging smiles with Biden, surrounded by his supportive family (all, like Harrington, White), or chatting with racially diverse groups of friends and classmates. Though packing nowhere near the emotional punch of Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith’s I Talk Like a River (2020), the reassuring tone and message may promote improved self-esteem in readers struggling with speech (or other) difficulties of their own. An afterword offers said readers and their caregivers simple insights and suggestions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sunny, affirmative testimonial to the power of positive thinking. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-309829-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A damp squib next to the many Apollo 11 commemorations that soar.
Three buddies help one another travel to the moon and back.
Leaning heavily on the bro-ness of the enterprise, Tucker describes how “Mike,” “Neil,” and “Buzz” trained and prepared together, then, while the world watched, went “where no human had been before” (or “no man” as she again misquotes the line later on but using its original sexist language) and returned to wild acclaim: “They even met the pope!” With distressing disregard for accuracy she pulls sound bites from the historic flight’s transcripts but alters them to suit and twice explains that “Mike” was responsible for rescuing his teammates if anything went wrong…when in truth, except for a few limited situations, that would have been impossible. In Radford’s simply drawn cartoons, views of the three White astronauts hanging together, sometimes with hands on arms, are more aspirational than strictly true to life (Michael Collins famously characterized their relationship as “amiable strangers”), and considering contemporary photographs, the veracity of a scene showing a racially and gender diverse Mission Control staff seems doubtful too. But the theme the author hammers home in her trite summation is firmly in the pilot’s seat throughout: “They worked hard and look [sic] after each other, and together they reached for the stars!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A damp squib next to the many Apollo 11 commemorations that soar. (afterword) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7112-6380-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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