Noisy fun, with a strong beat and a narrative pattern that even younger audiences will have no trouble catching.
Dan the cabbie puts pedal to the metal to pick up a rock band and get it to a gig.
Written as a cumulative rhyme, the narrative barrels along just like the classic yellow cab in Culotta’s high-energy cartoon illustrations. Sporting a hip handlebar mustache and goatee and endowed with a personality as big as his seat-filling body, Dan motors through town and country settings like there’s no tomorrow. He picks up Maureen with her tambourine (“Shake-a shake, crash! Shake-a shake, crash!”), Tyrone with his saxophone (“Squeeba-dee dee, squeeba-dee doo!”), and a trio of other musicians in succession. A chorus between each stop invites readers to “Climb inside while you still can / with Dan, Beep! Beep! / the Taxi Man.” At ride’s end the cheery chauffeur pulls up in front of the sold-out Rockin Joint, lets the band out—and then joins the motley lot onstage as lead singer.
Noisy fun, with a strong beat and a narrative pattern that even younger audiences will have no trouble catching. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61067-072-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Loewen’s story is a simple snapshot of kindergarten graduation day, and it stays true to form, with Yoshikawa’s artwork resembling photos that might be placed in an album—and the illustrations cheer, a mixed media of saturated color, remarkable depth and joyful expression. The author comfortably captures the hesitations of making the jump from kindergarten to first grade without making a fuss about it, and she makes the prospect something worth the effort. Trepidation aside, this is a reminder of how much fun kindergarten was: your own cubbyhole, the Halloween parade, losing a tooth, “the last time we’ll ever sit criss-cross applesauce together.” But there is also the fledgling’s pleasure at shucking off the past—swabbing the desks, tossing out the stubbiest crayons, taking the pictures off the wall—and surging into the future. Then there is graduation itself: donning the mortarboards, trooping into the auditorium—“Mr. Meyer starts playing a serious song on the piano. It makes me want to cry. It makes me want to march”—which will likely have a few adult readers feeling the same. (Picture book. 4-5)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5807-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
This long-running British series (the first Little Princess book was published in 1986) has been adapted for television there. In this installment, her dad (in a jacket and tie, wearing his crown) has read her a story and is about to turn off the light when the Little Princess shouts, “I WANT MY LIGHT ON!”—with her entire face subsumed into one of those scarlet, tooth-edged mouths. She’s not afraid of the dark but of ghosts. Dad checks under the bed, and General, Admiral, Doctor and Maid assure her there are no ghosts. The Little Princess’s room is a bright yellow, but readers see glimpses of the castle’s arches and stone steps past her doorway—and then there is a little ghost behind her bedpost, with a skeleton toy the shape of Little Princess’s own stuffie. Ghost and Princess scare each other, and he dashes off to his mother, who, as she stirs her pot of frog, worm and spider stew, assures him that there are no such things as little girls.... The pictures are clear, bold and exaggerated to great humorous effect. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7613-6443-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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