O’Garden takes readers for a rhythmic ride through the car wash in this playful outing. “What do we get for driving far?” she begins. “A crusty, dusty, dirty car.” Jabar’s (The Sundae Scoop, p. 1700, etc.) opening spread depicts a harried father behind the wheel of an outlandishly long, red automobile. Overhead, sea gulls fly low; two children sit in the back seat, one holds an ice cream sundae out the window. “How are we going to get it clean? / The bathtub? / Or the washing machine?” Without missing a beat, the family heads to the titular car wash for an onomatopoeic scrub-down. Alive with springtime tones and textured brush strokes, Jabar’s vibrant illustration depicts a car wash shaped like a giant, sunglass-wearing face; patrons enter through its open mouth. Inside, a hipster employee with two earrings and a goatee flashes a peace sign. The wash begins (“We hear a funny whumping sound / as floods of suds come foaming down / at the lathery-blathery, / scrubbly-bubbly CAR WASH”), bathing readers in sensational sounds. “Steamy sprays beyond the brushes / rinse us down in luscious rushes / at the drippity-droppity, bottom to toppity, / lathery-blathery, scrubbly-bubbly CAR WASH!” O’Garden offers a spot-on soundscape. While not as imaginative as Car Wash (2001), by Sandra and Susan Steen and Brian Karas, this will definitely appeal to the same audience. Whether they’ve been through an automated car wash or not, children will happily go along for the ride. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-694-00871-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Arrr, ’tis a seaworthy tale, so set your compass toward fulfilling your dreams, and she’ll not steer you wrong.
A simple ship yields a (relatively) big adventure in this classically told tale.
In a little cabin on a little lake, there lives a mouse named Mabel, a boy, and a man. The man constructs a very special model ship. “He wouldn’t even let the boy help.” Every night when she looks at it, Mabel wonders if the ship is seaworthy. She lets herself dream of piloting it through seas both rough and calm, “free and full of wonder.” When an opportunity presents itself, Mabel hesitates but reasons that the chance may never come again. Readers will be relieved to find that the ship does indeed float, but when the ship meets with tragedy, both Mabel and the man will need to find a solution. Jonker cleverly juxtaposes the mouse’s character arc alongside that of the grown man. Whereas Mabel must summon the courage to live her dreams, the man must overcome his fear of letting other people help him with his own. Cordell, meanwhile, outlines panels with rope, then fills his images to the brim with a busy cross-hatching technique that gives the book a timeless feel. Both boy and man in the book have light-brown skin.
Arrr, ’tis a seaworthy tale, so set your compass toward fulfilling your dreams, and she’ll not steer you wrong. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593350577
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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