A welcome board-book addition, even if it leaves readers hungry for a bit more.
Eat your way through the alphabet and learn about 26 varieties of that most kid-friendly of foods—noodles!
Celebrating the versatility, popularity, and ubiquity of noodles, this board book gives hungry readers a delicious tour of pasta dishes from a variety of cultures and countries. There is a dish for each letter of the alphabet. Some of these tasty entrees include “sauteed shellfish and short-noodle” Fideuà from Spain; “steamy, salty” Ramen from Japan; and “sweet milk custard” Vermicelli Kheer from India. Some young foodies might devour every morsel of the meticulous descriptions of the different dishes. Others may tire out before they reach “Zaru soba,” i.e. “chilled soba and shredded nori,” which diners are instructed to dip “from a bamboo basket into a cup of mentsuyu sauce before each bite.” Sixteen of the noodle names are written in both Anglicized form and other languages. The artwork nicely shows the dishes’ garnishes, but the flat digital renditions lack a certain appetizing spark. For instance, Tallarines Verdes (Peruvian Pesto) is described as “bright green pesto,” but the picture of the dish feels dull and lacks the glossy, oily shimmer that makes pesto look so yummy on a plate. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A welcome board-book addition, even if it leaves readers hungry for a bit more. (pronunciation guide) (Informational board book. 2-8)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-951412-36-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: The Collective Book Studio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated.
Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.
Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!”
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665954785
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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