bookshelf

TWO LITTLE TRAINS

Name: TWO LITTLE TRAINS
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
ISBN: 978-0-06-267651-1

by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Greg Pizzoli ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2020

Swoonworthy for train lovers and preschoolers alike.

bookshelf

First illustrated by Jean Charlot (1949) and then by Leo and Diane Dillon (2001) and now reimagined by Pizzoli, Brown’s enduring classic follows two distinct trains on their journeys west.

“Two little trains / went down the track, / two little trains went West. // PUFF PUFF PUFF / CHUG CHUG CHUG / two little trains to the West.” Over hills and through rain, snow, night, and wind, the trains—one a steam engine, the other a streamliner—travel. Brown uses onomatopoeia to punctuate the narrative while Pizzoli exploits it to differentiate the two locomotives. He makes every spread a visual play on contrasts, from the different train stylizations and type styles (sans serif for the streamliner’s “PUFF” and serif for the steam engine’s “CHUG”) to the complementary color palettes. The bold illustrations, created with rubber stamps and Photoshop, are done in a simplified style. Accessible, appealing, and understandable, both artwork and text are deceivingly simple, belying the sophisticated nature of each. Lively, rhythmic, and often rhyming text propels trains and readers down the tracks while evocative descriptions work within the confines of a few phrases per page. Skillfully designed and composed, Pizzoli’s cheerful interpretation is thoroughly modern and charming.

Swoonworthy for train lovers and preschoolers alike. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-06-267651-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
A HOME IN THE BARN
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

- BOOK REVIEW
GOOD DAY, GOOD NIGHT
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Loren Long

- BOOK REVIEW
MARGARET WISE BROWN'S MANNERS
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

bookshelf

LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2019

As ephemeral as a valentine.

bookshelf

Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

- BOOK REVIEW
BATH TIME FOR THE CRAYONS
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

- BOOK REVIEW
GOODNIGHT, CRAYONS
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

- BOOK REVIEW
NO SAM! AND THE MEOW OF DECEPTION
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

- SEEN & HEARD
Daywalt, Jeffers Collaborate on New ‘Crayons’ Book

- SEEN & HEARD
Daywalt, Jeffers Collaborate on New ‘Crayons’ Book

bookshelf

CHICKA CHICKA TRICKA TREAT

From the Chicka Chicka Book series

by Julien Chung ; illustrated by Julien Chung ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 2025

A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated.

bookshelf

Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.

Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!”

A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)