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GOOD NIGHT (NOT REALLY)

LET’S COUNT FORWARD AND BACKWARD

A humorous and spirited counting tale for young readers.

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In this counting picture book, a bedtime story features plenty of action.

Counting from one to 10, Lisa, a red-haired White girl, and Charlie, a Black boy, describe a story filled with madcap events. For instance, they say the tale is “so noisy, it’s like 3 billy goats are having a meeting.” They also explain that it’s “so Buzzy, it’s like 4 little fairies are fluttering around in the bathroom all trying to brush their tiny teeth at once,” and it’s “so mixed-up, it’s like 8 BIG mice are playing tag with 9 mini cats in the front yard.” When it’s time for bed, Charlie and Lisa count backward from 10 to one, recalling each happening. They admit that it’s “SO hard to sleep with all of this hubbub going on” because “this is NOT REALLY a good night book” but a “GOOD MORNING book.” The story concludes: “Wake up, kids! Welcome to this special day!” Evenson’s zany tale packed with creative scenes will aptly introduce youngsters to basic counting skills. The imaginative incidents have kid appeal, such as the “candy explosion in the playroom.” Matkevych’s colorful, lively illustrations offer animated renderings with charming details, including where critters cozily slumber. Readers will enjoy anthropomorphic characters like the smiling broccoli florets and gardening tools. The last spread integrates the players and elements from each episode, such as the two “big and bad” elephants playing on the seven “wacky swings.”

A humorous and spirited counting tale for young readers.

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-83934-335-3

Page Count: 42

Publisher: Bumblebee Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2022

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S CHRISTMAS

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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LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

As ephemeral as a valentine.

Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

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