This warmhearted, endearing volume encourages children to enjoy nature and treat each day as an adventure.
When winter comes, a girl and her dog explore a snowy world in this picture-book sequel.
The girl and dog welcome the first signs of freezing weather as an opportunity to set out on their own. They navigate the snow-covered woods, wandering “where no one else goes” and finding stories in the imprints of wild animals (“Tracks left by cougars, / foxes, robins and pine martens”). With no adult in sight, winter presents an opportunity to have “a world all to themselves,” an urge any young child should understand. Because neither the girl nor dog is named, young readers can easily place themselves in the story and imagine that the escapades are theirs. The text conveys a deep affection for nature and the undisturbed wild: “There’s nothing like this world, / this playground called winter.” The duo’s exploits are entertaining and nonthreatening (“This is when the girl and her dog dance / When they leave everything in life up to chance”). After the weather gets too cold, they curl up together for warmth. Even as darkness falls, they decide to search for new marvels in a landscape transformed by moonlight. Stetsiv’s richly detailed illustrations emphasize the overall sense of playfulness and joyful discovery. The full-page drawings reflect the cool colors of winter: browns, blues, and white, brightened by the girl’s colorful snowsuit, hat, and scarf. Lighthearted pictures emphasize fun, showing the dog digging caves in the snow while the girl laughs or the canine happily licking the girl’s face. A nightscape washed in shades of blue reflects the peacefulness that follows a busy day. McKinley (The Adventures of a Girl & Her Dog: In the Mountains, 2015, etc.) tells the tale mostly in rhymes, some cutesy (“toeses” and “noses”), although others seem forced (“ice” and “life”), and occasionally the rhyme is lost altogether. Sometimes the text lacks clarity; what is meant, for example, by a world “where all traces of life vanish”? But these are minor inconsistencies in an overall appealing appreciation of winter.
This warmhearted, endearing volume encourages children to enjoy nature and treat each day as an adventure.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9858924-4-9
Page Count: 47
Publisher: Brigham Distributing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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