Tiny Mouse and her small adventure are a most welcome addition to the board-book shelf.
Tiny Mouse likes all kinds of weather, except for “splashy rain.”
“Tiny Mouse loves nibbling wheat in the sunshine,” and she also enjoys watching the wind-blown leaves. “She likes the crunchy frost on a cold night” and the snowflakes that land on her nose. The delightful mixed-media illustrations are further enhanced by a variety of die-cuts throughout that will have babies wanting to touch. On the first two-page spread, the upper right corner follows the contours of Tiny Mouse, and on the verso, these are the contours of the dried leaves. As Tiny Mouse crunches on the frost on a cold night, a die-cut circle outlines an equally frosty-looking moon, which becomes snow on the next page. But when the weather turns wet, Tiny Mouse is encouraged to run into her hole and hide, and the hole is right there waiting for her. The real surprise in the book comes at the end, when Tiny Mouse’s nose peeks out of her hole to find the sun has come out and made a “lovely rainbow.” The rainbow is an embedded wheel sturdy enough to last through many a spin. The baby-friendly text is rich in vocabulary: “nibbling,” “crackly,” “crunchy,” “tickle,” “splashy,” lovely”—all words that babies will easily understand by the context.
Tiny Mouse and her small adventure are a most welcome addition to the board-book shelf. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7967-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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