Neat as the visual patterns are, their excruciatingly fine-grained complexity is likely to cause more frustration than...
Ljungkvist follows up Search and Spot: Animals (2015) with a bevy of vehicles to spot amid fleets of planes, boats, cars, buses, and other ways of going.
Even Waldo isn’t better hidden, as the rank after rank of tiny, fine-lined shapes and narrow bands of color on each spread offer dizzying challenges to even the most practiced young eyes. The tallies of what to look for within each bewildering visual maze are likewise exhausting—one spread, for instance, conceals “10 helicopters, 10 hot air balloons, 8 airplanes with one propeller, and 6 planes that have 2 propellers.” Elsewhere, on one spread, diverse shapes including “6 green things that you would pedal” overlap to create a jumble of lines and colors, and on another, among 78 multihued and identically shaped bicycles on a page are seven with a particular sequence of colors on their thin wheels and bodies. In four cases text in large circular frames is placed over the patterns rather than to the side, leaving many vehicles or items only partially visible.
Neat as the visual patterns are, their excruciatingly fine-grained complexity is likely to cause more frustration than pleasure, even in obsessive types. (visual key online) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-57042-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.
This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.
Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A delight for car and truck fans young and old.
Don’t cry over spilled milk. Add crumbled cookies and freeze to make Cookie Crunch ice cream with your friends instead.
Tow truck Joe and his pup, Patch, roam Drivedale honking “Hello!” and helping vehicles (all are anthropomorphic) in trouble. They charge batteries and replace flat tires until “SCREECH! BANG! CRUNCH! CRASH” An accident! It appears the milk truck was going too fast and hit a cart full of cookies. What a mess! Traffic is at a standstill, but Joe, Patch, and all the other trucks help out. The cement mixer is ready. The bulldozer cleans up the cookie crumbles, and the grocery truck supplies sugar and vanilla. Patch adds milk from the milk truck, and the mixer stirs everything up. An ice cream truck offers to freeze the mixture. Voila! Cookie Crunch ice cream! Slowly and carefully, all the vehicles follow Joe and Patch to the garage to end the busy day with scoops of their delicious ice cream creation. Related in an easy, conversational rhyme with clear and bright illustrations, this story is a good read-aloud, but it’s an even better one-on-one read. Children and adults need to pore over the written puns in the illustrations. Signs such as “BIG WHEEL COOKIES—THEY TASTE WHEELY GREAT” and “KNEAD FOR SPEED BAKERY” are too good to miss.
A delight for car and truck fans young and old. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-358-05312-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
