While construction-equipment bedtime books have become a genre in and of themselves, there’s still room for one more...
You can lead a bulldozer to bed, but you can’t make him sleep.
Seemingly acquiescent, Little Bulldozer is ready to be put down for the night by his human mom and dad. But even after a bath and tooth-brushing, sleep eludes him. In a series of actions that will be familiar to caregivers everywhere, Little Bulldozer thumps around his room, reads a book (The Little Engine that Could) too loudly to himself, and even attempts a failed stealth mission down the stairs to see what his parents are up to. Only when he slips into his older sisters’ room (a steamroller and excavator, respectively) does sleep finally overtake the restless little machine. With its tiny human parents/enormous inhuman children dynamic, the book owes more than a passing nod to Jane Yolen and Mark Teague’s How Do Dinosaurs series. But if Broach’s tale is by no means original it nevertheless remains soothing in its familiarity. Done in pencil and Adobe Photoshop art, the accompanying illustrations are sweetly humorous. They even contain the occasional oddball detail, such as background family portraits showing ancestors with old-timey car heads. Jackson’s art also plays up the inherent ridiculous logistics of an inside bulldozer’s life, such as how he would act on a spring mattress or how caterpillar treads might tiptoe. Little Bulldozer’s parents have brown skin and black hair.
While construction-equipment bedtime books have become a genre in and of themselves, there’s still room for one more good-hearted tale of antsy, agitated equipment. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-10928-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
The book is available in just about every format--but this is the perfect one.
It's hard to believe that a pop-up wasn't the creators' original intention, so seamlessly do moveable parts dovetail into this modern classic's storyline.
In contrast to the tale's 1998 pop -up version, the figures here move on every page, and with an unusually graceful naturalism to boot. From pulling down Big Nutbrown Hare's ears on the opening spread to make sure he's listening to drowsily turning his head to accept a final good-night kiss in a multi-leveled pull-down tableau at the close, all of Little Nutbrown Hare's hops, stretches and small gestures serve the poetically spare text—as do Big Nutbrown's wider, higher responses to his charge's challenges. As readers turn a flap to read Big Nutbrown's "But I love you this much," his arms extend to demonstrate. The emotional connection between the two hares is clearer than ever in Jeram's peaceful, restrained outdoor scenes, which are slightly larger than those in the trade edition, and the closing scene is made even more intimate by hiding the closing line ("I love you right up to the moon—and back") until an inconspicuous flap is opened up.
The book is available in just about every format--but this is the perfect one. (Pop-up picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5378-1
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
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A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.
Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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