A fine addition to the truck shelf.
Bouncy rhythms and catchy rhymes will entrance truck-loving tots as they listen to this tale of truck ducks doing their jobs.
Dump Truck Duck is the first to arrive at the site, and his job is to clear the debris: “He fills the truck up to the top / with gravel, grass, and gritty glop; / with brambly brush and slimy stuff. / The truck can take it. The truck is tough.” Dozer Duck and Digger Duck soon join him to help load the dump truck and level the site. Finally, the builder ducks and gardener ducks arrive to do their jobs, and by the final spreads, a new park has been built, complete with gazebo, walking trails, sod, and a playground, all with a creek nearby, which the dirty ducks take advantage of after a hard day’s work. Then it’s buckle up and drive off under the stars. Bryant’s rollicking verse carries readers right along with it, and the rhymes are easy to predict, making this one preschoolers can chime in on. De Ruiter’s ducks (a diverse sort of many colors and patterns, and, if eyelash codes are accurate, fairly evenly divided between male and female) and their marvelous trucks take center stage, and some of the early illustrations of the messy site may even spark discussions about litter and pollution.
A fine addition to the truck shelf. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: May 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1736-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
So sweet it’ll have readers heading for their toothbrushes.
Another entry in the how-much-I-love-you genre.
The opening spread shows a blue elephant-and-child pair, the child atop the adult, white hearts arcing between their uplifted trunks: “You’re a gift and a blessing in every way. / I love you more each and every day.” From there, the adult elephant goes on to tell the child how they are loved more than all sorts of things, some rhyming better than others: “I love you more than all the spaghetti served in Rome, // and more than each and every dog loves her bone.” More than stars, fireflies, “all the languages spoken in the world,” “all the dancers that have ever twirled,” all the kisses ever given and miles ever driven, “all the adventures you have ahead,” and “all the peanut butter and jelly spread on bread!” Representative of all the world’s languages are “I love you” in several languages (with no pronunciation help): English, Sioux, French, German, Swahili, Spanish, Hawaiian, Chinese, and Arabic (these two last in Roman characters only). Bold colors and simple illustrations with no distracting details keep readers’ focus on the main ideas. Dashed lines give the artwork (and at least one word on every spread) the look of 2-D sewn toys.
So sweet it’ll have readers heading for their toothbrushes. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8398-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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