Well done, Maisy! Keep up the good work.
Hop on the tractor for a busy day on the farm with the unflappable Maisy.
Along with the simultaneously publishing Maisy's Plane, this title launches the Go with Maisy board-book series. Rounded, die-cut edges make it a pleasure to touch and hold. Stylized primary-color gouache pictures are clear and bright. Cousins is a master at paring every experience down to its essential elements, leaving just enough information to hold the attention of her toddler readers. Each spread has just one declarative sentence: “She brings some hay to the barn to feed the cows.” The little white mouse cheerfully goes about her chores. When she loses a lamb, Maisy calmly retraces her trail, her tractor “chug, chugging” all the way. Of course, astute board-book readers will have noticed the lamb left behind and see that only three made it into the tractor wagon—a nicely embedded math lesson. Youngsters will quickly be chiming in with the “chug, chug” of the tractor and appropriate animals sounds. Her young readers will accept Maisy's self-congratulatory “Well done, Maisy!” as a compliment too.
Well done, Maisy! Keep up the good work. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)Pub Date: March 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7305-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Clean, clear, brillant design, with no drag.
As trains do, this one simply—splendidly simply—comes and goes.
Starting with an empty track, Crews sets down and names the six different ears: each a different primer-bright color, all together a streaking rainbow when pulled along by the moving black engine. Through tunnel and city and darkness and daylight moves the freight train, "Going, going—gone," leaving behind a trail of smoke and a strong, sharp impression.
Clean, clear, brillant design, with no drag.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1978
ISBN: 0688117015
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1978
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
To quote one particularly joyous double-page spread, “Oh, what a ride!”
A succession of forest creatures—and even the river itself—learn from one another and validate their relationships with both one another and the wider world.
The simplicity of the text and the stylized, comical creatures belie the depth of the message that comes through for even the youngest of readers: We are all in this together, and our differences strengthen our unity. The river “didn’t know it was a river…until” Bear accidentally begins riding down it on a piece of broken tree trunk. Bear in turn doesn’t realize he is on an adventure until Froggy lands on his back; lonely Froggy doesn’t know how many friends she has until the wary Turtles show up on the ever-more-swiftly-moving log; the Turtles learn how to enjoy the ride when Beaver climbs aboard; and so on through several more characters until they are all at the brink of a waterfall. Outstanding art perfectly complements the text, showing the animals’ differing personalities while also using color, space, and patterns to create appealing scenery. There are several hilarious double-page spreads, including one from the animals’ collective perspective, showing solely the various feet on the tree-trunk–cum-raft at the waterfall’s edge, and one requiring a 90-degree turn, showing the plummeting animals as they reach for one another—some looking worried and others, like Duck and Beaver, obviously enjoying the sudden drop.
To quote one particularly joyous double-page spread, “Oh, what a ride!” (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-46447-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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