An unevenly written but fantastically illustrated children’s fantasy.
A cat and her boy explore life around their orchard home and get stuck in a terrific storm in this steampunkish debut adventure by veteran artist Hall.
When adventurous Andy returns home from school in the city, Susie the cat couldn’t be more delighted. The cat and boy journey around the orchard as they prepare for their weekend adventures together, visiting a horse barn and lake before heading home for dinner. The next day, Andy’s friend Katie arrives, racing with them in her steam-powered wheelchair. After returning home with her, Andy is excited to explore her father’s steam-power plant, but the colorful giant turbines there distract him from getting home on time. In this case, the delay is a treacherous one, as a storm is rolling in. Rather than go home on the road as he promised, Andy takes a shortcut through the woods. The blinding storm almost puts Andy and Susie in an unsafe situation—but Andy’s parents arrive just in time. Told in rhyming text from Susie’s perspective, the tale meanders through the characters’ lives rather than building the tension of the approaching storm, which resolves in two short pages. The rhyme scheme is also inconsistent in places; it’s typically AABBCC, but in places, it changes to ABAB, and the rhythm changes throughout. However, the joy here is in exploring Andy’s world, beautifully depicted in Hall’s full-scale paintings. From the first page, Susie will capture imaginations with the goggles she wears, and her relationship with Andy is sure to please young readers, especially animal lovers. Their world is populated with strange, wonderful contraptions: Andy’s school bus flies with tall-ship sails, Katie’s wheelchair spouts steam and her leg braces glow, and the local beekeeper wears a tin hat to prevent bee stings. Children will likely be intrigued by the crystal city in the final pages and wonder whether there’s more of Andy and Susie’s world to explore.
An unevenly written but fantastically illustrated children’s fantasy.Pub Date: April 22, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Noble Point, LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
