Once again, the Finn’s Fun Trucks series delivers.
Young vehicle maven Coyle goes postal in the latest installment of Finn’s Fun Trucks.
While previous books in this series introduced a variety of specialized and potentially unfamiliar vehicles to young readers, this book features five familiar but dissimilar conveyances that do the same job in different locales. An ethnically diverse group of mail carriers deliver the mail by means of truck, snowmobile, bicycle, boat, and motorcycle, depending on the country and landscape where they live. As in previous books in the series, each vehicle is named by its driver on verso and illustrated on the facing page, with three key features labelled. In past books, the drivers would ask readers to guess what each vehicle does; readers would then open the flap with the vehicle’s picture on it to see it in action. In this book, the question is slightly different; for example, “I drive a snowmobile. Can you guess where I deliver the mail?” When the flap is opened, readers see a mail carrier on a snowmobile racing through deep drifts in northern Canada. The truck is used in the U.S., the bicycle in the Netherlands, the boat in Venice, Italy, and the motorcycle in Tokyo. Young readers learn that different settings require different solutions and get an introduction to world geography at the same time. Heavy Haulers publishes simultaneously, hewing to the series’ familiar format.
Once again, the Finn’s Fun Trucks series delivers. (Board book. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1648-7
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Smoother rides are out there.
Mommy and Bonnie—two anthropomorphic rodents—go for a joyride and notice a variety of conveyances around their busy town.
The pair encounter 22 types of vocational vehicles as they pass various sites, including a fire engine leaving a firehouse, a school bus approaching a school, and a tractor trailer delivering goods to a supermarket. Narrated in rhyming quatrains, the book describes the jobs that each wheeled machine does. The text uses simple vocabulary and sentences, with sight words aplenty. Some of the rhymes don't scan as well as others, and the description of the mail truck’s role ("A mail truck brings / letters and cards / to mailboxes / in people's yards) ignores millions of readers living in yardless dwellings. The colorful digitally illustrated spreads are crowded with animal characters of every type hustling and bustling about. Although the art is busy, observant viewers may find humor in details such as a fragile item falling out of a moving truck, a line of ducks holding up traffic, and a squirrel’s spilled ice cream. For younger children enthralled by vehicles, Sally Sutton’s Roadwork (2011) and Elizabeth Verdick’s Small Walt series provide superior text and art and kinder humor. Children who have little interest in cars, trucks, and construction equipment may find this offering a yawner. Despite being advertised as a beginner book, neither text nor art recommend this as an engaging choice for children starting to read independently. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Smoother rides are out there. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37725-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
So rocket science can be fun.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
If they haven’t already thought about their futures (and they probably haven’t), toddlers and preschoolers might start planning after perusing this cheerful first guide to scientific careers. Plump-cheeked, wide-eyed tykes with various skin and hair colors introduce different professions, including zoologist, meteorologist, aerospace engineer, and environmental scientist, depicted with cues to tip readers off to what the jobs entail. The simple text presents the sometimes-long, tongue-twisting career names while helpfully defining them in comprehensible terms. For example, an environmental scientist “helps take care of our world,” and a zoologist is defined as someone who “studies how animals behave.” Scientists in general are identified as those who “study, learn, and solve problems.” Such basic language not only benefits youngsters, but also offers adults sharing the book easy vocabulary with which to expand on conversations with kids about the professions. The title’s ebullient appearance is helped along by the typography: The jobs’ names are set in all caps, printed in color and in a larger font than the surrounding text, and emphasized with exclamation points. Additionally, the buoyant watercolors feature clues to what scientists in these fields work with, such as celestial bodies for astronomers. The youngest listeners won’t necessarily get all of this, but the book works as a rudimentary introduction to STEM topics and a shoutout to scientific endeavors.
So rocket science can be fun. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62354-149-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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