The watercolor illustrations, charming, comedic, and pleasing, will no doubt delight readers, although they won’t show many...
What small child doesn’t love to count or to anticipate all the glorious things they will do when they are bigger?
This original picture book combines these two pastimes by embedding succeeding numbers within increasingly imaginative, bold fantasies for the future—when the child is older and free to have “5 scoops of ice cream for lunch” or “7 different jobs, one for each day of the week.” Each numeral stands out, enlarged and assertive, within the narrator’s declarative dreams. But who is the narrator? The first page suggests a light-skinned boy, but when admiring the “7 different jobs” (among them cookie taster, scallop diver, and opera singer), observant readers notice several different figures (of, perhaps, different genders, as one wears just swimming trunks and another wears a long gown) at work. By the time the narrator plans to “play a trumpet with 11 buttons,” readers see a blond, pink-cheeked man on the horn and know this voice encompasses the desires of many children, not just one dreamer. However, Dek’s figures appear all from the same place and pale-skinned palette, though some have ruddier cheeks than others. It seems a missed opportunity to engage a broad audience of readers not to show them an impressive spectrum of children of varying skin tones and backgrounds.
The watercolor illustrations, charming, comedic, and pleasing, will no doubt delight readers, although they won’t show many of them reflections of themselves. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61689-602-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, springtime-themed reworking of a beloved tale.
The classic picture book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets a makeover for Easter as the letters of the alphabet locate and decorate eggs.
The mission is simple: “Chicka chicka peek peek. / Everybody seek seek! / Find all the eggs / in the pretty pink tree.” The letters are making their way up the flowering tree in search of the hidden eggs when a “SNEEZE!” scatters everyone and the eggs fall and crack. Luckily, a bunny hops by with a haul of new ones, which the letters then paint and bedazzle, eventually sharing the newly decorated eggs with a group of bunnies. This picture book is a successfully Easter-fied version of the original: The letters go up; the letters fall down. Truly, though, that’s all the preschool crowd needs. Chung’s illustrations are simple and familiar, a direct echo of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The letters appear in colorful, bold, block form. The book has few added details, just focal images like the tree and its pink flowers, the colorful eggs, tufts of grass, and some friendly rabbits. The alphabet appears in order (both upper- and lowercase letters) at the book’s open and close. The rhyming text follows the iconic cadence of the source material, making for a worthy read-aloud that will keep little hands turning pages.
A sweet, springtime-themed reworking of a beloved tale. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9781665990646
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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