Masterfully captures that nebulous time when spring feels simultaneously imminent and worlds away. A seasonal triumph.
Henkes answers the question on everyone’s lips and within everyone’s hearts each winter.
“Is it spring?” Some signs indicate yes: the flowers down the street, the buds on the trees, the birds in the sky. But wait! An opposing opinion comes from the wind, “turning icy and sharp.” The gray clouds swoop in, and the sleepy animals stay in their homes. “Is it spring?” A late snow bedecking the tulips gives a resounding “No, no, no!” “Will it ever be spring?” This time the affirmative comes from the very sun itself, “warming the wind and melting the snow and calling the animals out of their dark homes.” “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Henkes leans into the frustration experienced by both children and adults yearning for green grasses and balmier days. Relying on minimal yet well-chosen words and elegantly crafted art, he beautifully evokes the betrayal many feel when snow unexpectedly returns; the pinks, purples, and greens that appear in scenes of flowers, grasses, buildings, and benches are often obscured by thick layers of snow. Henkes deftly allows color to work its magic on readers’ emotions; even the shifting hues of the page backgrounds behind the titular refrain are well chosen.
Masterfully captures that nebulous time when spring feels simultaneously imminent and worlds away. A seasonal triumph. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780063469259
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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
As ephemeral as a valentine.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
