A sweet suburban/rural contrast to the snowy day enjoyed by Peter in the city.
A brother and sister venture outside on a snowy day for some playtime with the neighborhood children.
“Perky faces. / Scrambling feet. // Snowflakes falling! / What a treat!” With nary an adult to be seen, the relationship between the older brother and his little sister takes on a nurturing feel as he helps her with her mittens and, once back inside, shares hot chocolate and a book. Outside, though, the group of neighborhood kids intermixes in their various activities. The boys and girls have a snowball fight, make snow angels, play in an igloo, and sled. They are a diverse bunch: three white children, a child with East Asian features, a child with beige skin, the brown-skinned sibling pair, and their brown-and-white floppy-eared hound. Short sentences and spot-on rhythms give the outdoor adventure a bouncy excitement; toward the end, these same characteristics combine with somnolent words and phrases to calm readers in readiness for sleep: “Creamy chocolate—warm, not cold. // Peaceful twilight. Stories told.” Shipman’s illustrations feature the children’s bright snow gear against a light blue and white snowy backdrop, the outdoor scenes wonderfully speckled with the still-falling snow.
A sweet suburban/rural contrast to the snowy day enjoyed by Peter in the city. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2440-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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
A fresh, melodic take on family harmony.
Rock legends, husband-and-wife team, and proud grandparents Benatar and Giraldo present an upbeat ode to families.
A youngster with long blond hair confides conspiratorially, “This might come as a bit of a shock, // but my grandma and grandpa…ROCK!” The silver-haired duo—who resemble the co-authors—jam out in a practice space; Grandpa strums an electric guitar, while Grandma belts out a tune, microphone in hand. (All three are pale-skinned.) Jagged star strokes burst from the amps, reverberating across the page. As the young narrator sings the praises of these hip, artistically minded grandparents, the illustrations depict many varied, diverse families making music. One grandparent strums a ukulele, another prefers the drums, and an especially eclectic granny croons everything from lullabies to Led Zeppelin while cooking. There’s no wrong way to share joy with grandparents. Benatar and Giraldo acknowledge that you don’t have to be a musician to rock (“Anyone can rock! / It’s a state of mind, / like feeling happy or being kind”) as they speak to other passions and occupations (“They can be a plumber, a chef, a pilot, a teacher”). One spread showcases other names for grandparents, both colloquial and cultural, presented without disrupting the text’s rhythm. As expected, this pair lays down a steady beat with a smooth flow. Everett’s energetic art, with musical swooshes and swirls, buoys the text.
A fresh, melodic take on family harmony. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781728298023
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
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