This solid introduction to the wonderful world of construction work should also speak to young truck and fix-it obsessives.
In this companion to Fire Chief Fran (2022), a woman oversees the construction of a house, from breaking ground to handing over the keys to its new residents.
“Home Builder Hazel turns off Main. / Meets her team on Maple Lane. / ‘The house goes here—a perfect spot! / But first we have to clear this lot.’” Hazel, a tan-skinned woman with straight dark hair, manages a multiracial crew of men and women who bulldoze, pour cement, cut wood, and so on to create, over a period of months, a modest-size yellow-and-green suburban house. Ashman dramatizes ordinary snags (busted equipment, a rainstorm, a paint shortage), but through it all, Hazel keeps things moving, often reassuring her team with the same phrase: “‘Whatever the problem,’ she says to her crew. / ‘We’ll figure it out—we always do!’” Ashman’s rhymes are snappy and economical, just right for a tale centered on people who prize efficiency. Carpenter’s mixed-media art clearly documents Hazel’s workers’ individual tasks without skimping on their humanity: Facial expressions reveal feelings like anxiety over a tilting scaffold and pain from a banged-up thumb. Together with Fire Chief Fran, this book is the logical place for readers to turn after they’ve outgrown the Big Jobs, Bold Women series and before they’re ready to wield hammers of their own.
This solid introduction to the wonderful world of construction work should also speak to young truck and fix-it obsessives. (facts about home construction, glossary) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781662620829
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Astra Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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