A treat for Hot Rod fans as well as lovers of trucks and carnival rides.
Hot Rod Hamster takes the fair by storm!
Hot Rod and his big bulldog buddy are headed to the fair to see Fearless Franco’s Monster Truck Mania. “Truck day, treat day, cotton-candy sweet day. / Fun day, fair day, music in the air day.” But the show is not until 3:00. What can they do in the meantime? Hamster knows: search for the perfect ride! He knows the attributes of the perfect ride. The first criterion is fun. “Sailboat, rowboat, pirates long ago boat. / Sub boat, tugboat, chugga-chugga-chug boat. / Which would you choose?” The boat ride is fun, but the perfect ride will also be fast. The teacups ride fits that bill, but the perfect ride will also let them drive. The bumper cars are pretty good, but the perfect ride will go up in the air. Bulldog goes to save their seats for the monster-truck show while Hot Rod gets some cotton candy…where he hears that Fearless Franco can’t drive since he broke his glasses. Now who do you think would like to drive a monster truck? Lord and Anderson reteam for a third fun-filled, rhythmic jaunt with Hot Rod and his friends (Happy Birthday, Hamster, 2011, etc.). Returning to what he loves best—things that GO!—Anderson’s bright-eyed, expressive acrylics extend Lord’s enthusiastic rhyming tale to perfection.
A treat for Hot Rod fans as well as lovers of trucks and carnival rides. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-46261-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Delightful and engaging.
Preschoolers can follow a little brown mouse on its traveling adventures in this engaging color concept book.
As the book starts, a little mouse can be seen packing up her equally itty-bitty suitcase. Rhyming text with a wonderful read-aloud rhythm introduces readers to the little mouse’s street: “Red house / Blue house / Green house / Tree house! / See the tiny mouse / in her little brown house?” Clean-lined, colorful illustrations in Gómez’s signature style lead readers along: into a flower-filled garden; on a ride on a red city bus; in a potted windowsill plant attended by a child; on the curb where a group of people wait to cross a street; in an underwater scene with “one gigantic whale!”; and on a jolly ride that employs a string of vehicles. The little mouse is not mentioned again, making it easy for readers to forget it as they get caught up in the myriad delightful details of each illustration. No problem there. The book ends with “and did you spot that mouse?” This should send children back to the beginning, this time in earnest search of the little mouse and her itty-bitty suitcase. Should children need further enticement to read the book again, travel patches on the endpapers invite readers to match them to the relevant part in the story. The people depicted are diverse both racially as well as in physical ability.
Delightful and engaging. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55381-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
A masterful consideration of perception, exploration, and, ultimately, love.
Seeming simplicity yields rich rewards in this sensory-steeped tale of adventure and friendship.
Color-sapped outlines of a wilderness kick off this tale of a dog and cat traveling together. “Two together headed home. / Cat and dog. / Bell and Bone. / For a moment. For a day. // Two together on their way.” After they peek at their reflections in the water, different artistic styles are used in the following pages to depict each animal; the dog is rendered in curved acrylics, the cat in spiky colored pencil. Sometimes the very page splits in two, one side portraying the dog’s perceptions and the other the cat’s. After a toad waylays them, they encounter a bear, a cave, and a rainstorm. As night falls, the colors grow deep and sumptuous, and home appears like a beacon. Inside, the two are now more rendered more realistically and in more detail than ever before. That is, until they go out again to prowl the night. Featuring the singsong nature of some of the best nursery rhymes, the tale reads with an effortless lilting quality, gently rhyming. Yet it’s the art that’s the showstopper here, and one wonders if the two are crispest in the home because we’re seeing them the way their human owner does. What is unquestionable is the friends’ affection for each other, the pair sticking side by side through thick and thin.
A masterful consideration of perception, exploration, and, ultimately, love. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781797202778
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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