A stalwart companion on the page, and a trusted friend always; prepare for much secret-keeping to occur.
Equine secret-keeping proves a powerful lure in Klassen’s latest in his board-book series, following Your Truck (2026).
As this tale opens, an unseen narrator gives young readers the gift of a horse. “It is yours to have.” Little ones can select the color for themselves (“It could be a black horse. Or a white one”), though the narrator settles on just brown “for now.” And while this horse can run and jump, its true value lies in how well it will keep the readers’ secrets. On a wordless two-page spread, children are encouraged to whisper, or simply think, their secrets to the horse, which fills those pages. Once they are done, it will never tell. “Never ever ever.” But now the day is done, and everyone can go to sleep and think of what to do with the horse tomorrow. Klassen diverges slightly from his usual format with this title, drawing the horse into a far more personal relationship with its young owners. It proves itself a stolid pal, capable of the typical Klassen stoicism, but also a trusted figure. As such, riding this horse proves less interesting than baring one’s soul to it. Indeed, Klassen has tapped into one of the truest reasons humans wish to have horses at all.
A stalwart companion on the page, and a trusted friend always; prepare for much secret-keeping to occur. (Board book. 0-3)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9781536248265
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring through rhymed puns and sentimental art.
The title sets the scene for what’s to come: The owl asks the owlet as they fly together, “WHOO loves you?”; the kangaroo and joey make each other “very HOPPY”; and the lioness and cub are a “PURRRFECT pair.” Most of the puns are both unimaginative and groanworthy, and they are likely to go over the heads of toddlers, who are not know for their wordplay abilities. The text is set in abcb quatrains split over two double-page spreads. On each spread, one couplet appears on the verso within a lightly decorated border on pastel pages. On the recto, a full-bleed portrait of the animal and baby appears in softly colored and cozy images. Hearts are prominent on every page, floating between the parent and baby as if it is necessary to show the love between each pair. Although these critters are depicted in mistily conceived natural habitats and are unclothed, they are human stand-ins through and through.
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers. (Board book. 6 mos-2)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-1374-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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