An engaging animal friendship tale that emphasizes an important environmental message.
Sea creatures suffer the effects of ocean pollution in this picture book.
Poppy, a porpoise, and her friends Terry, a sea turtle, and Clay, a crab, are distraught to encounter “plastic bottles, straws, bags, face masks, and all different kinds of things” littering their waters. After a “plastic straw goes straight into Terry’s nose,” she yelps in pain and starts bleeding. Although Clay attempts to remove it using his claw and Poppy tries with her flippers, the object remains stuck. Poppy instructs Terry to “be brave and swim to shore for help.” Terry is relieved when a beachgoer rescues her and whisks her away for aid. Poppy and Clay feel “sad, scared, and confused” but are delighted when Terry returns healed days later. As Poppy swims to the water’s surface for a “breath of the salty air,” she spots people picking up trash and begins to feel optimistic: “Life is great living in the sea. I’m hopeful humans will keep it clean!” Through the eyes of kindhearted and sympathetic characters, Moore’s enjoyable story portrays the concerning reality of ocean pollution in a way that youngsters will understand. The tale underscores the necessity of keeping the waters clean and safe and will inspire readers to take action. Sergii’s cartoonlike, full-color illustrations feature detailed scenes and up-close depictions of animated animals. The images show blue waters littered with trash, bustling beach scenes, and seascapes with vivid elements, including bubbles and reefs.
An engaging animal friendship tale that emphasizes an important environmental message.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9989349-4-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Adventures Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2021
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
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
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