Youngsters who love anything equine should enjoy this volume filled with ample horse details and lore wrapped in light humor.
An ambitious pony in Kentucky imagines a future filled with possibilities in this debut children’s book that mixes dreams, facts, and motivational messages.
Crafted as “edutainment” and primarily for horse fans, this work by Shew and Orttenburger—a fourth-grade teacher—revolves around a colt named Midway, who relates equine dreams that take him “traveling on adventures all over the world.” He imagines winning the Triple Crown, becoming a rodeo star, pulling a milk cart in Scotland, running with wild mustangs in the Grand Canyon, marching in the Christmas parade in New York as a police horse, and more. The chapters, one page in length, consist of text appropriate for readers ages 8 to 12. The work delivers Midway’s narrative followed by brief facts arranged as a bullet-point list related to that day’s dream. When the pony fantasizes about taking part in a rodeo on July Fourth, for example, the authors offer info-bits about bull riding, Western music, and the origin of the holiday. Midway realizes “a dream come true” when he is cast in a movie as the yearling version of champion thoroughbred Secretariat, and the fact list offers background on that Triple Crown winner and names famous “Hollywood” horses. Payst’s cartoon-style illustrations are arranged a bit haphazardly, some before the pertinent chapter, others after. They are lively and offer a witty touch despite an awkward, rubbery-looking Midway who bears little resemblance to anything found in nature. Each clearly written chapter introduces a different kind of horse, equine competition, event, or job. Mixed-breed Midway refuses to see limitations: if he puts his mind to it, he thinks, he could even be an award-winning Palomino. (“A dream can become a desired goal or purpose, like becoming the fastest horse in the world or a rodeo star,” the authors explain.) The book’s overall lesson for success: “Set goals and work hard.” Which of Midway’s dreams will be realized may come later—this is the first work in an intended series.
Youngsters who love anything equine should enjoy this volume filled with ample horse details and lore wrapped in light humor.Pub Date: April 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4908-0295-4
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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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