As a visit with Maisy goes, it’s a typically colorful day, but readers should be aware they’ll have to mind the gaps
Maisy the mouse and her pals visit London.
They ride a double-decker bus, admire the lights in Piccadilly Circus, pose on a stone lion in Trafalgar Square, pass Buckingham Palace, walk along the Thames, stop in at the Tower of London, take a ride on the Underground, and more. At each stop, shutterbug Maisy takes a picture, and her captioned photographs appear on the rear endpapers. (Except for the one of all the friends together taken by a kind penguin bobby, every single snapshot is endearingly off-kilter.) In this whirlwind tour of London, Cousins makes a few odd choices. While all the sights the friends visit are standard tourist destinations, it’s a little peculiar that in this book for toddlers and preschoolers the protagonists hang out in the National Gallery rather than take a spin on the London Eye, for instance. Though the latter attraction is depicted in one scene, the emphasis is on culture and education rather than strict entertainment. Tots introduced to London through this book as preparation for a family visit will recognize the ravens and the Beefeaters but will be unprepared for the blood-soaked history of the Tower of London said Beefeaters cheerily unfold.
As a visit with Maisy goes, it’s a typically colorful day, but readers should be aware they’ll have to mind the gaps . (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8399-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deserving if not divine little book, worthy of its pint-sized enthusiasts
Clearly The Little Dump Truck (2009) and The Little School Bus (2014) were just the prelude to Cuyler and Kolar’s most ambitious project yet.
“Perky” would not be a poor way of describing the little fire truck that shuttles its white driver, Jill, and her racially diverse fire crew all over town. Each rhyming stanza, one per spread, begins with the line “I’m a little fire truck” then proceeds in a standard abcb rhyme scheme. After rescuing a cat, the firefighters must contend with a burning building. Happily it just takes a couple “splish-splosh” squirts of the fire hose to put everything right. Aimed at toddlers and younger preschoolers, the art proves to be just as simple as the text. The digital illustrations keep the color bright, the anthropomorphized truck perky, and the situations shy of scary. Cuyler even opts to ensure that the burning building is pet- and baby-free. When it comes to true firefighting enthusiasts, more is always better, hence the endpapers’ impressive (not to mention diverse and gender-inclusive) visual dictionary of terms. (Front and rear are identical.) Alas, no fire-safety tips are included aside from the visual image of Jill and crew crawling along the floor, so continue to turn to Mike Austin’s Fire Engine No. 9 (2015) as the industry standard.
A deserving if not divine little book, worthy of its pint-sized enthusiasts . (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62779-805-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
While it’s cute and will help to complete vehicle lovers’ collections, this package doesn’t do much to address school fears...
Rhyming verses stretch out the job of a school bus to 12 spreads.
Driving down the road, picking up kids and dropping them off, visiting the mechanic, operating the wheelchair platform and going around a bend are a few of the things the yellow vehicle does in the job it so obviously loves, as evidenced by its smiling bumper, cheerful eyes and pink cheeks—all vehicle parts. Each verse starts with “I’m a little school bus,” so readers (especially those reading aloud) will be hard-pressed not to try to force the rhymes into the tune for “I’m a Little Teapot.” Some work better than others, both at fitting the tune and scanning well. “I’m a little school bus / waiting by the walk. / Boys and girls climb on, / sit and laugh and talk.” Kolar’s digital illustrations are cartoon-bright, the people are nicely diverse, and there’s not a grumpy face to be found. Oddly, the creators choose not to focus on a single day; the illustrations go from skirt- and shorts-clad children to a snow day and back to T-shirts in just three spreads. There’s not much on bus safety (save lining up to get on and don’t put your hands out the windows), and the pictures never show the inside of the bus.
While it’s cute and will help to complete vehicle lovers’ collections, this package doesn’t do much to address school fears or preparedness in the preschool audience it appears to be aimed at. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9435-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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