An intriguing forest story for young environmentalists.
A tailless dog and tiny woodland folks called the Shuns return in this third series entry from Franks and Rodriguez (Corky Tails: Tales of a Tailless Dog Named Sagebrush, 2017, etc.).
Sagebrush, a corgi, and her human, a white ranch owner named Young Miss, are doing chores one morning when they notice ash falling from the sky. “Run for your lives! The woods are on fire!” warn the local deer who stampede through the ranch. Young Miss and the ranch dogs get the cattle to safety and see a smoke jumper, a firefighter trained to combat forest blazes, parachute into the woods. The growing threat of the fire looms in the background of Rodriguez’s inviting illustrations, with the colors hinting at peril without overwhelming young readers. In the meantime, the smoke jumper discovers the fire was started by the previous book’s villains: careless loggers overcutting the ancient forest. They were too lazy to clean the motors of their machines, creating a fire hazard with the debris. The smoke jumper also helps a Shun find a home at the ranch. Franks’ vivid and timely tale should appeal to young conservationists, who will want to discover the forest’s fate in future installments. But with the brave smoke jumper at center stage, Sagebrush feels less vital to the story, and this picture book seems more like a middle chapter of an ongoing saga than a stand-alone tale. The dense but approachable text might be better suited to chapter-book readers, who could enjoy all three tales back to back.
An intriguing forest story for young environmentalists.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 19
Publisher: XlibrisUS
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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