It’s Little Toot, all grown up and on steroids. Along the lines of their celebrated I Stink! (2002), the McMullans give another hardworking machine with a face and a blue-collar personality the chance to toot its horn in gruff, tough language: “When big ships get to the harbor, they need ME! ’Cause I’m mighty! And I can nudge, bump, butt, shove, ram, push, and pull ’em in. Here I go.” This red-capped tug’s not all talk, either, as it shows by bringing in a tanker, a container ship, and finally a mammoth liner (“Think this big mama’s got me beat? No way!”) under the square, watchful eyes of previously berthed ships. Then, hull dented, bumpers bent, “all tuggered out,” it heads for the barn at day’s end, already thinking about the next day’s workload. Young swabbies will be delighted by this gander at a tug’s labor and gear, and likely absorb its pride in a job well done. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-009290-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
Eduar (Jooka Saves the Day, 1997, etc.) composes here a classic dreamtime walkabout, a wonder quest, that starts when Anatole the bactrian camel begins to read from his “ancient book” and the boy Jules drifts off to sleep between the camel’s humps. Anatole is on the move, swimming the Southern Sea, surfing through crashing breakers, getting lost in the jungle outside Quito, scaling peaks, outrunning lightning. All the while, Jules snoozes peacefully away. Eduar catches the action in rhyme, one sentence to a page, with Anatole’s dashing feats on the left, and Jules’s torpor noted on the right: “Anatole rides bravely along a wire from the trees./Jules is kissed by an orchid-scented breeze.” The artwork is up to the energy and the exoticism of the tale, with great cymbal-crashes of vivid color conjuring a thunderstorm, a foaming sea, a busy street. Despite such charged images, the book works as a lullaby: Jules may bounce around the world, but still he slumbers on. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30202-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small truck fans will be riveted by these huge popup trucks: a pick-up bounces along over a bumpy road; a bright purple semi- grinds to a halt with clouds of steam shooting out from under the hood; a tow truck’s crane prepares to hook it up; a fire truck’s ladder rears up; a yellow dump truck drops its load. Stickland (Ten Terrible Dinosaurs, 1997, etc) sticks largely to front-end, low-angle views, so that the trucks seem to loom up from the page, leaving the rhymed phrases that serve as captions nearly hidden. “Green Means Go / Start Off Slow.” Drivers are young and old, male and female, with one or two darker-skin faces to add to the diversity. There are no fancy or multiple effects here (unless you count the moving truck parts) just straight-ahead, crowd-pleasing traffic. (Picture book/popup. 4-6)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-929927-03-7
Page Count: 14
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
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