Simple text, accessible vocabulary, and plentiful photos may spark conversations about the types of jobs that machines can...
A versatile vehicle is the subject of Gebhart’s (Deere is Right Here!, 2017, etc.) latest picture book for very young readers.
“This is CAT!” the book’s narrator announces with enthusiasm, introducing kids to a Caterpillar skid-steer loader vehicle, alongside a photo showing the machine in profile. Although the CAT in the first picture has treads, the CAT in the second has wheels and a drill, showing a particular task that the machine can do. The next has treads again and carries sod to a lawn in a forklift. This picture book is full of partial-page images, accompanied by sparse but easy-to-decipher text, which show a variety of CAT’s jobs—“CAT carries a log” and “CAT scoops gravel” among them. A photo of a small, toy CAT shows that the machine is popular enough to be found in a child’s home, and two other photos show CAT’s drivers. There’s little sense of continuity from one picture to the next—each CAT has different features, and the mentions of “help” by CAT’s drivers aren’t placed consecutively. However, pre-K readers interested in construction vehicles, as well as very newly independent readers, will appreciate the short, concise sentences, which clearly describe the action in each photograph. The final page sums up the types of actions that CAT can take: drilling, scooping, and carrying, “all with help!” The amount of white space and the large print make the book highly approachable, overall. The photos are of varying quality (and one bears a website label), but each clearly depicts its subject in a way that will entice lap-readers to point to the machine’s features or imagine its noises with help and prompting.
Simple text, accessible vocabulary, and plentiful photos may spark conversations about the types of jobs that machines can do.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5441-0203-0
Page Count: 34
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
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