A rewarding read-aloud with enjoyable question-and-answer rhythms and bubbly, festive animal illustrations.
In this debut picture book, young readers are asked to assist an owl host with a thorny problem.
Owl is giving a surprise birthday party for Mouse, and readers are invited. But, oh no—his glasses are broken, and he needs the audience to help him identify guests at the door. First, Owl hears a reveler coming: “Splish…Splash…Flap…Flap,” for example, or “Hiss…Hiss…Slither…Slide.” Then Owl provides some rhyming clues based on noted characteristics: “Who has yellow feathers? / Who has splashy feet? / Who says QUACK QUACK / with their smiling little beak?” or “Who has a scaly diamond back? / Who looks like the letter S? / Who says Hisssss / …and is the LONGEST of our guests?” The answers are rewarded with Owl’s enthusiastic responses: “Exactamundo!” “DING! DING! DING! Correct!” As each partygoer arrives, the animal’s special sound is added to a list, from “Hoo hoo!” to “Squeak squeak!” for the guest of honor. Not only that, Owl gets a new pair of glasses. With all the sound effects, repeated hoo’s and who’s, the final shout of “SURPRISE!” when Mouse arrives, and the overall guessing game, Maier and Horton’s tale makes for a fun read-along experience for adults and children. The attractive, scribbly pen-and-ink plus watercolor illustrations are a nice change from the usual primary colors. Dominated by pale blue, orange, peach, and gray, they are dynamic with repeated circle shapes.
A rewarding read-aloud with enjoyable question-and-answer rhythms and bubbly, festive animal illustrations.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-944201-14-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Building Block Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
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