by Chris L. Demarest & illustrated by Chris L. Demarest ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995
A board book journey for the very young on a pleasurable plane ride through an intimate, minimal landscape. On each page, Demarest (Lindbergh, 1993, not reviewed, etc.) plants two words that have an ineffably mesmerizing quality``Plane lifts/Soars high/Down below/Towns lie''that can be read in a variety of tones and cadences. As a chant, the text has a powerful, surging effect; read with a lilt, the words impart the lulling sensation of flight. The woodcut-like illustrations are colored in lushly chromatic greens, reds, blues, purples, and yellows, with sharp black details and shadows. The little red plane tooling across the pages provides continuity and a sense of progress, though a few of the images fall short: the waterfall pours out of nowhere and a yapping dog is out of proportion to the circling plane. Never mind. This is a near- perfect marriage of the board book format to content, in this case, a small, snappy story that inspires dramatic readings out loud. A companion volume, Ship (ISBN 0-15-200267-7), does a similarly energetic job plying the high seas and evoking things oceanic. (Picture book. 1-3)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-15-200268-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
Share your opinion of this book
More by Patricia Thomas
BOOK REVIEW
by Patricia Thomas & illustrated by Chris L. Demarest
BOOK REVIEW
by Chris L. Demarest ; illustrated by Bill Mayer
BOOK REVIEW
by Chris L. Demarest & illustrated by Chris L. Demarest
by Katrina Charman ; illustrated by Nick Sharratt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
A perfect piece of treasure it is not, but shiver me timbers, it’s fun.
Two pirates and their parrot companion embark on adventures to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
Following Car, Car, Truck, Jeep (2018), Charman and Sharratt team up again for this swashbuckling, musical tale. The two buccaneers and their parrot spend a day at sea engaged in such maritime activities as scrubbing the deck and hoisting the sail along with quintessentially piratical chores like digging up buried treasure. At the end of the day—which culminates in a nonviolent walk across the plank—the two pirates return home. Charman’s rhyming text has a nice cadence, and thanks to the cover note to sing along to the tune of “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat,” it moves along at a nice clip. For the most part, the rhymes work neatly into the tune so that it reads easily the first time through. Sharratt’s black-outlined illustrations are boldly colored and eye-catching. The pirates themselves are not obviously gendered; one presents white and the other has light-brown skin. Most of the ocean creatures have anthropomorphized features—a mostly successful choice with the exception of the jellyfish and octopus, shown awkwardly with humanlike noses and smiles (and, oddly, eyebrows for the octopus). Overall, this one holds high appeal for little readers, and the nature of the singsong-y, rhyming text will make it a highly requested reread.
A perfect piece of treasure it is not, but shiver me timbers, it’s fun. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0319-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
More by Katrina Charman
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Katrina Charman ; illustrated by Jeremy Norton
by Jeffrey Burton ; illustrated by Alison Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2019
Short, sweet, and engaging; a sing-along introduction to furry first responders.
“The Wheels on the Bus” gets an extra syllable, a siren, a hose, and a snazzy new ladder.
This variation on the popular children’s song should hit the spot with budding truck aficionados among the diapered set. The text is a straight adaptation of “The Wheels on the Bus,” with firetruck and firefighting themes replacing the sights and sounds of a bus rider’s commute. The siren goes “Woo-woo-woo,” the lights go “Flash, flash, flash,” the riders “hold on tight,” the ladder goes “up, up, up,” and the hose, of course, goes “swish-swish-swish—now, the fire’s out.” The book won’t win awards for originality, but it should be a toddler pleaser. The colors on the cover are an explosion of reflective red foil against a bright yellow background; the interior colors are more muted but still bright and cheery. The firefighters and onlookers are anthropomorphic animals in firefighter costume or civvies, as the case may be. Characters include a racoon, some bunnies, a fox, and a woodchuck, among others, all rendered in an accessible, cartoony style. Between the bright colors and the smiling gameness of the furry firefighters, the proceedings should excite and delight most tots.
Short, sweet, and engaging; a sing-along introduction to furry first responders. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4244-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jeffrey Burton
BOOK REVIEW
by Jeffrey Burton ; illustrated by Juliana Motzko
BOOK REVIEW
by Jeffrey Burton ; illustrated by Alison Brown
BOOK REVIEW
by Jeffrey Burton ; illustrated by Sanja Rešček
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.