Fasten your seat belts and sit back and relax; this clever book should fly off the shelves.
Get ready for takeoff and some counting fun.
This charming companion to Backseat A-B-See (2012) uses a counting concept to describe the phases of preparation for an airplane trip. A family of three with a boy wearing a yellow cap provides a narrative throughline for readers. “When taking a flight, what do you see? / 1 Airport / 2 Luggage carts / 3 Check-in desks” and so on, including escalators, trash cans and security officers. Following 10 gates are 100 fastened seat belts, 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers), 33,000 feet (10,000 meters), a “million places to explore”—and “[o]ne happy meeting.” The digital illustrations depict the scenes with graphic shapes, universal signs and simplified white silhouettes similar to those seen on restroom signs for people; only the protagonist family and some key figures such as airline personnel are given any individuality at all. Humorous, graphically clever details abound. The trash cans are seen in cross section, filled with illegal items such as water bottles, scissors and baseball bats. Eight men and nine women line up across the spread from left to right waiting to get into their respective restrooms; the boy stands with his legs crossed. Informative as well as reassuring, this is ideal for prepping kids for their first flight (and maybe adults as well).
Fasten your seat belts and sit back and relax; this clever book should fly off the shelves. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4521-1662-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
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
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems.
Rhyming poems introduce children to anthropomorphized trucks of all sorts, as well as the jobs that they do.
Adorable multiethnic children are the drivers of these 16 trucks—from construction equipment to city trucks, rescue vehicles and a semi—easily standing in for readers, a point made very clear on the final spread. Varying rhyme schemes and poem lengths help keep readers’ attention. For the most part, the rhymes and rhythms work, as in this, from “Cement Mixer”: “No time to wait; / he can’t sit still. / He has to beg your pardon. / For if he dawdles on the way, / his slushy load will harden.” Slonim’s trucks each sport an expressive pair of eyes, but the anthropomorphism stops there, at least in the pictures—Vestergaard sometimes takes it too far, as in “Bulldozer”: “He’s not a bully, either, / although he’s big and tough. / He waits his turn, plays well with friends, / and pushes just enough.” A few trucks’ jobs get short shrift, to mixed effect: “Skid-Steer Loader” focuses on how this truck moves without the typical steering wheel, but “Semi” runs with a royalty analogy and fails to truly impart any knowledge. The acrylic-and-charcoal artwork, set against white backgrounds, keeps the focus on the trucks and the jobs they are doing.
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5078-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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