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THE SASQUATCH AND THE LUMBERJACK FAMILY

Name: THE SASQUATCH AND THE LUMBERJACK FAMILY
Author: Crix Sheridan
ISBN: 978-1-63217-270-9

by Crix Sheridan ; illustrated by Crix Sheridan ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2020

No narrative but many questions.

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Those unlikely pals, the sasquatch and the lumberjack, return in this exploration of the meaning and nature of family.

Sheridan’s sequel to The Sasquatch and the Lumberjack (2018) is sparse in text and rich in visual detail, like its predecessor. Unfortunately, though the artwork is as delightful as ever, this book lacks the clarity of the first; here, the message is ambiguous and the cast confusing. Even the title confuses. Is this the story of the sasquatch and the family of the lumberjack or a meditation on family presented by the sasquatch and the lumberjack? The spine suggests the latter; the typeface for “Family” is twice the size of the rest of the title. The front cover seems to say “...the Lumberjack Family.” Maybe a colon is in order? Ten successive double-page spreads with a single word of text apiece present a series of terms: “friends” (our titular pals), “Ma,” “Pa,” “Grammie,” “Gramps,” “Sister,” “Brother,” “Aunt,” “Uncle,” and, finally, simply, “family.” The spare text invites kids to create their own narrative, but the concepts in the first book (“autumn,” “slide,” and “forage,” for example) were more easily depicted and inferred than the familial connections portrayed here. The lumberpersons are racially mixed (white, black, Asian) but the relationships aren’t clear, and there are sasquatch siblings and baby bigfoots, too. Is this two families? One family? What is a family? Readers open to pursuing the possibilities will have much to think about.

No narrative but many questions. (Board book. 2-6)

Pub Date: May 5, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-63217-270-9

Page Count: 22

Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch

Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SASQUATCH AND THE LUMBERJACK
by Crix Sheridan ; illustrated by Crix Sheridan

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S CHRISTMAS

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 2014

Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S VALENTINE
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)