An inviting, accessible title for new readers.
Garland’s little red car invites children along for a ride to reading success.
Opening endpapers show an aerial view of a Levittown-like setting with a single driveway occupied by a car. The title page zooms in on this home, with the car facing the reader, its headlights like eyes and its fender a subtle smile. That expression is amplified in the closer view on the first page of the book proper, with the simple text “Car looks good.” But when the car ventures out to “go far,” it ends up becoming quite a mess after mud, smoke, and birds sully its shiny, red body. “Car does not look good now,” reads the controlled text. “Car is sad.” Happily, Car is also resourceful and heads off to a carwash. Simple lines—“Car gets wet. Splash, splash. / Car gets suds. // Car gets a rub. Mmmmmmm”—see it getting clean again. Closing endpapers picture the car driving back through the suburban neighborhood again, its bright yellow headlights echoing the lights in the houses. Digital illustrations may make some children think of Pixar’s Cars films, particularly in scenes where Car’s facial expressions are strongest and most humorous—as when the birds make their mess.
An inviting, accessible title for new readers. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
A sizable gallery but, overall, a monotonous one.
Fans of trucks, trains, aircraft, and other conveyances large and small will find dozens gathered here, lined up neatly in squads according to function from “Demolition” to “Space Travel.”
Though most of the vehicles are easily identifiable by sight, small labels will clue in readers unfamiliar with specialized monikers like “wheel excavator” or vehicles not found in the United States, such as the colorfully decorated Pakistani bus and a motorized “pooper scooper scooter” from France. Cartoon passengers or other human figures convey a sense of size, and with occasional concessions, the floating, wheeled or winged machines are depicted at least close to relative scale on each spread. But the pleasures of poring over all the transports, earth movers and Earth leavers will pall quickly even for confirmed enthusiasts: So flat and generic are the images that many with similar purposes look like variations on the same shape. Moreover, an (rather skimpy) assortment of jointed arms, sliders, spinners and flaps that lift to provide cutaway views create at best only localized feelings of movement or visual drama. Also, the titular “ultimate” begs the lack of military or (aside from a space shuttle on the final spread) historical vehicles on view.
A sizable gallery but, overall, a monotonous one. (Pop-up informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-2-8480-1942-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleaser for fans of big rigs and disaster scenarios alike.
An international gallery of air, sea, and land firefighting and rescue vehicles, with hinged flaps offering peeks inside each.
Drawn with Biesty’s trademark attention to fine detail and printed on stiff cardboard, the eight featured vehicles include an Australian police car festooned with cameras and other high-tech gear, a NATO submarine rescue pod, a big New York City fireboat, and a British Tamar-class motorized lifeboat. Explanatory labels and small views of the vehicle in action or of other makes with similar jobs surround the large central image. Though the artist apparently can’t resist adding an occasional cutaway view, the flaps are designed to be almost invisible at first glance so that viewers can get a sense of what each vehicle actually looks like before they start delving into insides and distinctive gear. The labeling is sometimes perfunctory—the contents of a helicopter ambulance’s baggage compartment are generically dubbed “Emergency equipment,” and a ground-based ambulance features “privacy windows,” whatever that means—but overall the text adds informative notes about specialized features, life-saving capabilities, power plants, top speeds, and other performance data.
A pleaser for fans of big rigs and disaster scenarios alike. (Informational novelty. 5-7)Pub Date: June 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7959-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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