A vocabulary-filled adventure whose illustrations tell most of the tale.
Miller’s alphabet-centered picture book tells a story of a very peculiar bus ride home.
The three main characters are anthropomorphized zebras; one has typical black stripes, another has light blue ones, and the third’sare fuchsia. As the zebras make their way home from school on the bus, the plot progresses in alliterative phrases, such as “Bye-bye butterflies! Mrs. Brown babbles as the bright bus beeps”; each phrase features words that start with a particular letter from A to Z, sometimes to the detriment of plot coherence. Bus driver Chris and the zebras hike over a mountain after the bus runs out of gas; a serendipitously placed log in a river helps the group make the trip home. Fantastical perils stand in the way, including an octopus, before the zebras safely return to their home at the “Zig-Zag Zipper Zoo.” Much of the story is told through Miller’s illustrations, as the text itself is fairly sparse, due to the alliteration restriction. The rough colored pencil images feature no shading, and scribbles in the sky and on the sidewalk are sometimes distracting. However, the sparsity of the text may spark valuable conversations about how to tell stories with images instead of words. Chris is portrayed with brown skin; other human characters show a range of skin tones.
A vocabulary-filled adventure whose illustrations tell most of the tale.Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9798992264708
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Picture Novels
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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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