An enjoyable and relatable tale of childhood mishaps.
An unsupervised kid makes a mess in the house in this picture book.
While his babysitter is distracted and his sister, Molly, naps, Billy, a Black child, decides to bake cookies. Trying to recall how his mom makes them, he mixes sugar, butter, and a “full carton of eggs.” When Billy accidentally knocks over the flour canister, it hits the bowl, sending ingredients flying everywhere. The commotion wakes Molly up. Billy reassures his sister that after a bath, he’ll clean up. Billy doesn’t recall how much bubble soap his mom adds to the tub, so he uses the entire bottle. He enjoys his soak but forgets to shut off the tap, resulting in a flood in the bathroom. Hearing the noise, Molly barges in and climbs on the windowsill, afraid because she doesn’t know how to swim. Just then, “Mommy rushed in….Her shoes were covered with eggs and flour. When she saw the scene…she was speechless.” Now, she makes sure the kitchen is stocked with cookies before she goes out and that her son has a book to read during Molly’s naptime. Dee’s eventful tale depicts how well-intentioned childhood curiosity can lead to chaotic, sometimes comical misadventures. The silly scenes here will amuse young readers familiar with messy situations of their own. Displaying bright, engaging colors, Perko’s illustrations creatively mirror the hectic events. Details like puffs of white flour dust and rubber ducks bobbing in the water are fun touches.
An enjoyable and relatable tale of childhood mishaps.Pub Date: June 24, 2021
ISBN: 979-8511680569
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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