A distinct change of pace from the cute clucks and oinks of Noisy Farm (2013) and like sound-makers.
Setting new standards for gross sound effects, 10 monsters snore, scream, scratch, hiccup, belch, or worse as they tumble one by one out of an overcrowded bunk bed.
Rather than stick with the well-known original lyric, Cotton offers new stanzas to make rhymes for each chip-generated sound: “Just two noisy monsters left / when tummy trouble started. / One clutched his gut and, with a moan, / the room shook as he….” Blecha (aptly named) contributes a row of popeyed, brightly colored, dribbling or otherwise disreputable Monsters Inc.–style creatures—each of which falls or is ejected from the bed atop the previous victim and, with a press on its belly, loudly utters its juicy assigned response. Though the final collective plaint—“WE’RE MORE SQUISHED THAN BEFORE!”—is somewhat anticlimactic, the stacked-up monsters remain on the final spread to reprise their sonic contributions with further pokes. The batteries are (for better or worse) replaceable through a port on the rear cover.
A distinct change of pace from the cute clucks and oinks of Noisy Farm (2013) and like sound-makers. (Picture book/novelty. 2-6)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0067-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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BOOK REVIEW
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