An intriguing but uneven tale about love, persistence, and emotions.
In this debut picture book, the temperaments of two children change, but their support system stays the same.
Opal and Arlie are two moody children. Sometimes they’re happy, so they dance outside in the sunshine and laugh. Sometimes, they’re feeling particularly silly, “and they make funny faces and belly laugh and spin circles like leaves in the whirling wind.” Like many a child, though, they aren’t always positive and upbeat, so they often cry alongside the rain pouring down outside or “scream and shout and stomp like rumbly thunder.” They can even be quiet, whispering secrets as the snow settles outside on the frozen ground. But through it all, an older woman named Lolly supports them. Lolly doesn’t care if it’s rainy, snowy, or blindingly sunny: She loves Opal and Arlie no matter the weather outside the house and inside their hearts. Like the relationships between the characters, Dobson’s engaging work is close and personal. Featuring sparse text, it could make a good gift book for grandparents of toddlers, although its unnecessary use of a shortened version of “attitudes” and its failure to explain who exactly Lolly is may not make it a universal choice. The author’s watercolors depict modest scenes, excelling in the seasonal backgrounds and soft landscapes despite falling short in portraying the white characters in an appealing manner.
An intriguing but uneven tale about love, persistence, and emotions.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2024
ISBN: 9798385035427
Page Count: 24
Publisher: WestBowPress
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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