123 NYC

A COUNTING BOOK OF NEW YORK CITY

Dugan revisits the streets and skyscrapers of New York City for this follow-up photo essay to ABC/NYC (2005), pairing color shots of painted or sculpted numbers from one to 20, with black-and-white views of clocks, children, wheels, architectural details, bagels, bridges and more. The previous outing contained some bobbles, but here her choices for topics and photo techniques are spot on, without arty blurring or references to colors that aren’t shown. Subjects are presented in a mix of collective single shots, like a mouthwatering stack of eight pretzels, and galleries—including among the latter such riveting arrays as nine public sculptures, 12 outdoor clocks and 19 different kinds of pet animal. Adding captions designed to spur closer looks—“10 shoes. Do you have a favorite?”—Dugan not only invites viewers to sharpen their powers of observation, but communicates an infectious enthusiasm for noticing details that will have children surveying their own surroundings with new eyes. Locations for each picture are specified in the endnotes. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: April 1, 2007

ISBN: 0-8109-1381-X

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007

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Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.

THE CRAYONS GO BACK TO SCHOOL

The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.

Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: May 16, 2023

ISBN: 9780593621110

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023

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As ephemeral as a valentine.

LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

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