This exciting invitation to take to the air is one energetic and entertaining journey for adventurers and aviation lovers...
Imagination takes flight in this masterfully illustrated, bouncing verse for the plane-obsessed.
Beautifully composed drawings thrill, as biplanes, jet planes, prop planes and seaplanes take to the skies. Wiggins applies an old travel poster aesthetic to his digital illustrations—and delivers on their promise of adventure, enticing readers into the world of air travel. Soaring into a vast blue sky, he captures the feeling of unlimited space, the freedom of flying. When they are on the ground, his planes are epic, mammoth machines. Even in a storm—with the light bouncing through clouds, illuminating the plane from underneath—the effect is idyllic. His choices, from a warm palette, excellent use of pattern and a texture that alludes to the use of linen paper, make everything about this journey feel special. Lyon’s informative, rhyming text touches on the mechanical (from plane parts and types) as well as the emotional (the experiences of both pilot and passenger). Her verse goes beyond enumerating a plane’s basic purposes to affirming the spirit of flight and exploration: “Climb through clouds / heading for blue— / just like a bird. / Air holds you.”
This exciting invitation to take to the air is one energetic and entertaining journey for adventurers and aviation lovers alike . (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5025-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
A brassy, assertive fellow—young readers in the middle of their own power struggles will relate.
A tugboat’s size and might are easy to anthropomorphize; add this personified puffer to the mix.
Tough Tug is built near Seattle, made of strong steel welded together and adorned with a fresh coat of bright red paint. Wide googly eyes and a determined smile complete the look. On launch day, Tough Tug triumphantly flashes forward and backward, twirling and swirling through the water. Older tugboats (distinguished variously by mustaches, glasses, and eye patches) grumble at the youngster’s bravado. “Push and pull is what tugs do. Practice THAT.” Tough Tug’s first job is to tow a barge to Alaska. Rhythmic mantras churn across the surface of the water in bold navy letters: “Ready, steady. / Steady, ready. // Chug and tug. / Tug and chug.” But Tough Tug is overeager and challenges Arctic Tug to a race. The thrum changes to “Race and run! / Run and race!” Arctic Tug is first to Sitka, but while crossing the open ocean to Anchorage, the older tug gets into trouble. It’s Tough Tug to the rescue! McClurkan’s digital paintings look quite modern, but there is a feel to his foamy waves that recalls the mid-20th-century harbor of Little Toot. The anthropomorphized boats have plenty of personality, and readers who study the expressions on the container ships will be rewarded. An author’s note explains this was inspired by a true story of one tug rescuing another boat from a competing tugboat company.
A brassy, assertive fellow—young readers in the middle of their own power struggles will relate. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5039-5098-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
An innocuous telling, sure to slip in effortlessly with other firetruck books.
A little fire engine discovers what it’s good at by eliminating what it is not.
Who knew disappointment could be such a keen teaching tool? Narrator Flash is eager to demonstrate firefighting prowess, but every attempt to “save the day” yields bubkes. First Flash is too little to handle a fire at the airport (Crash, an airport crash tender, handles that one). Next Flash is too short to help a tall building that’s on fire (that honor goes to Laddie, a turntable ladder). Finally, an airplane and a foam tender together solve a forest-fire problem. Only when a bridge is suddenly blocked by snow, with all the other trucks on the wrong side of it, does Flash have the opportunity to save a pet shelter that’s ablaze. (Readers will note characters in shirtsleeves at the beginning of the book, so this is a very unexpected snowstorm.) Calvert deftly finds a new way to introduce kids to different kinds of firefighting vehicles by setting up Flash in opposition to situations where it’s just not the best truck for the job. The anthropomorphized engines and planes irritatingly include unnecessary eyelashes on trucks with feminine pronouns, but this is mitigated by the fact that the girls get cool names like “Crash” and save the day first. Enthusiastic if unremarkable digital art presents both firefighters and citizens in an array of genders and races.
An innocuous telling, sure to slip in effortlessly with other firetruck books. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-4178-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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