An engaging nature tale that emphasizes themes of resilience, bravery, and respect for the elements.
A fearful young tree finds courage in this picture book.
Kara worries that “Wind could smash her, Water could drench her, Earth could swallow her, And Night…could freeze her” before she has the chance to grow older and taller. When she voices her concerns to tall Utsa, who is over 200 years old, the wise tree relates a story about her daughter, Aa-hum, and the girl’s cousin Viheen, who got caught in a hurricane. The two trees reacted differently: Viheen “smirked at Water” while Aa-hum “took it as if she were taking a shower.” Viheen “shook his roots” and “sneered at Night” while Aa-hum “dug her roots” and “huddled with Night.” Aa-hum still stands “one hundred years and many storms later,” but Viheen was destroyed. Inspired by the tale, Kara aims to stay strong. That night, she boldly withstands a storm. She “smiled and bowed as Wind passed by” and as “Water slammed…Kara’s roots drank all they could.” Kara awakens the following morning to a bright day: “I will hum through storms. I will dance to tunes.” Utilizing lyrical language, Anand offers a lovely, thought-provoking sentiment about appreciating one’s surroundings and persevering through unpredictable, scary circumstances. Kara’s realizations and spirit will inspire readers facing challenges in their own lives. Redwood’s lush, pleasant illustrations portray expressive, anthropomorphic trees and beautiful forest backdrops in mostly dark hues. Some feature artistic details like human figures swirling in the sky.
An engaging nature tale that emphasizes themes of resilience, bravery, and respect for the elements.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-955088-09-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Pathbinder Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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