A positive, relatable story that doesn’t reach far enough.
In this true story based on a familiar Christmas ritual, Stulginsky recounts her family’s compulsion to buy their festive tree from the same source each year, hoping to keep a timeless tradition alive in an age of plastic trees and artificial decorations.
With its aisles of tall evergreen trees that “smelled like a forest,” May’s Christmas Tree Yard was like a child’s dream. There among the beautiful pines and firs, a mother and father found their first big, fat tree, then take it home and decorate it with handmade wooden ornaments, making it so perfect that they keep it up until Valentine’s Day. The ritual return to May’s continued each year until, one day, they discovered that the yard was gone. When a replacement tree didn’t feel the same, the family tracked down the company, May’s, to a poorer neighborhood, where it sat behind a chain-link fence. For the family, it was worth driving to the suburbs to buy a tree from May’s each year; even when it moved away, the family continued to travel there from another state. The annual group photograph in the yard expanded to include “other tree shoppers, and even Mr. May’s doctor and his wife.” Stulginsky’s short book is hard to categorize, particularly since the semibiographical story feels like a compromise between fiction and nonfiction; similarly, it’s written in verse, but it’s not really a poem. And though buying a Christmas tree is a common activity familiar to many children, it’s hard to get away from the feeling that this piece better belongs in a family album, complete with the photographs included here of the kids all grown up and now taking their own children to May’s. There’s not enough happening in the story, and it tends to be short on the buzz needed to keep young readers excited. The relatively bland, cartoon-style illustrations don’t really add anything striking to the story, either.
A positive, relatable story that doesn’t reach far enough.Pub Date: June 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1466999404
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Trafford
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2013
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
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Beloved Little Blue takes a bit of the mystery—and fear—out of Halloween costumes.
A lift-the-flap book gives the littlest trick-or-treaters some practice identifying partygoers under their costumes.
Little Blue Truck and his buddy Toad are off to a party, and they invite readers (and a black cat) along for the ride: “ ‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’ / says Little Blue. / ‘It’s Halloween!’ / You come, too.” As they drive, they are surprised (and joined) by many of their friends in costume. “Who’s that in a tutu / striking a pose / up on the tiniest / tips of her toes? / Under the mask / who do you see?” Lifting the flap unmasks a friend: “ ‘Quack!’ says the duck. / ‘It’s me! It’s me!’ ” The sheep is disguised as a clown, the cow’s a queen, the pig’s a witch, the hen and her chick are pirates, and the horse is a dragon. Not to be left out, Little Blue has a costume, too. The flaps are large and sturdy, and enough of the animals’ characteristic features are visible under and around the costumes that little ones will be able to make successful guesses even on the first reading. Lovely curvy shapes and autumn colors fade to dusky blues as night falls, and children are sure to notice the traditional elements of a Halloween party: apple bobbing, lit jack-o’-lanterns, and punch and treats.
Beloved Little Blue takes a bit of the mystery—and fear—out of Halloween costumes. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-77253-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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