Fun, inventive verses encourage creativity and play with the help of some truly unique and charming illustrations.
A young child and their friend learn to make the best sandcastle ever with fun step-by-step instructions from a friendly starfish in Meyer’s illustrated children’s book.
A young child spends the day on the beach and receives advice on how to build the perfect sandcastle. The child is first encouraged to ask a friend to help. The pair then builds a solid base by forming a crater in a sand hill and packing it down. The book offers different options for building, such as two different methods to form castle towers (“stack soupy pancakes” or use “buckets and forms”). Once the castle is complete, the author suggests various tips for landscaping, decorating, and moat-building. The main text is written in verse with an AABB rhyme scheme. (The text occasionally visually reflects its own meaning—each word of the phrase “hip hip hooray” is bigger than the last, for example). Each page features a box with (nonrhyming) tips from a starfish, like first testing the sand to determine whether it’s a suitable spot for building: “Scoop up a handful of damp sand, squeeze it tightly, and then open your hand. If the sand ball stays together, you’ve found a good place. If it falls apart, keep hunting.” A helpful checklist ensures readers will have everything they need for their own beach day. Musil’s artwork features adorable, brightly colored fabric pieces arranged to depict the two children interacting with both their surroundings and various little sea creatures (including a crab taking a picture of their completed sandcastle). The story itself is fun in its musical rhythm (“Grab a pail. A tube works, too. / (Any hollow form will do.)”) and informative—in addition to building suggestions, the starfish tips provide further relevant information, like facts about sand and advice about avoiding damaging sea turtles’ nests while creating castles). Meyer has crafted a charming and joyous celebration of friendship, artistry, and nature in a surprisingly small package that is a true delight to read.
Fun, inventive verses encourage creativity and play with the help of some truly unique and charming illustrations.Pub Date: April 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781478880462
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Reycraft Books
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections.
A young rabbit frets about her upcoming violin performance in Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s literary debut.
Mei Mei’s dream—“to share her music with the world”—is about to come true. She’s having her very first recital, complete with an orchestra, at the H’Opera House. But the day before the concert, Mei Mei is racked with anxiety. What if she plays a bum note in front of everyone? Sure enough, the worst happens mid-performance: She hits a clinker. But by remembering her mom’s reassuring sentiments from the night before (“Feel the wind…find the notes to make it right”), Mei Mei summons the strength to soldier on, and “wrong notes become right. Dissonance becomes beautiful.” At times, it all feels more like a resilience parable than a story, and the writing can be precious (“The flutter of butterflies wakes Mei Mei from her slumber”). Still, the message is solid, bolstered by O’Hara’s pencil and watercolor illustrations, which are plush-toy soft—fitting, as even prior to this book’s publication, a stuffed Mei Mei has been for sale at Grammy winner Laufey’s website. The tale features an all-animal, all-adorable cast, and endearingly, the art betrays no hint of modern times. A standout image presents Mei Mei onstage, temporarily incapacitated by her mistake and imagining her fellow musicians and their instruments with the color-blasted menace of an expressionist painting.
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217051748
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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