A gallery of gargantuan delights guaranteed to leave young fans of mountainous machinery panting with pleasure.
Eight real-life big “dogs”—some of which make the monsters of myth and movie look like Chihuahuas.
From a three-engine, 135-car coal train and the world’s biggest container ship to the Soviet-built Typhoon submarine and Mil Mi26 “Whopper Chopper,” these puppies are all designed to carry mammoth payloads over land or sea, through the air or into space. As usual, Biesty renders each with accurate proportions and in detail fine enough that individual workers or passengers can be discerned…though sometimes only as antlike dots. Surrounded by labels and smaller images, each portrait sprawls across a full spread of heavy stock. Revealing cutaways that are either visible or concealed beneath die-cut flaps of diverse shape and size give youngsters a chance to see inside. There is no real sense of relative scale; the Saturn V rocket that requires a 90-degree rotation of the book for readers to fully appreciate it looks downright slender next to the Caterpillar 797F dump truck that dominates the next spread. This quibble aside, there’s plenty to keep kids occupied for quite some time here.
A gallery of gargantuan delights guaranteed to leave young fans of mountainous machinery panting with pleasure. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7404-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
An evocative picture-book bildungsroman with equally atmospheric illustrations.
A found “faraway thing” becomes a turning point in the life of a boy.
“Lucian live[s] with his mother on a windswept shore.” His father has been absent from their lighthouse home for long enough that Lucian worries his real memories of him are fading. After a storm, Lucian combs the beach for what his father had called “faraway things”—objects tossed up by the sea—and finds a cutlass. Thrilled, he plays with it, sweeping and slashing the air. The next day dawns foggy, but when it lifts Lucian spies a stranded sailing ship. As he watches, a rowboat is lowered from the ship and moves toward him. The captain steps ashore, wearing a sheath that matches the cutlass. He tells Lucian the cutlass belongs to him, but in trade, the captain will let Lucian select anything from his treasures. Lucian reluctantly realizes the cutlass belongs to the captain and agrees. At the ship, the captain shows Lucian wonderful things and advises him to “choose wisely.” Lucian does. This bildungsroman’s timeless and slightly otherworldly feel is underscored by its illustrations’ muted, effective palette of earth, sea, and sky tones. Unusual perspectives—an ingenious choice for a muted palette—create visual stimulation, showing views from both above and below the horizon line. Satisfyingly, the endpapers allegorically start and finish the story. The captain has dark skin; Lucian and the others have light skin.
An evocative picture-book bildungsroman with equally atmospheric illustrations. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-49219-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Young fans of all things big and noisy will make trax for this dynamic dino-diversion.
The prehistoric metal monsters dug up and introduced in Dinotrux! (2009) break out—twice!—in this smashing (crashing, roaring, grinding) sequel.
Exploding through the dino-museum’s wall in the wake of a particularly stressful Kindergarten Day, enraged Tyrannosaurus Trux rolls off to climb a skyscraper. Meanwhile, hungry Garbageadon chows down on local traffic, a pair of Velocitractors plow up Main Street and Cementosaurus dumps a heaping “present” in the town square. Enough! declares the mayor, firmly dispatching the miscreant mega vehicles to school to learn better behavior. Further chaos threatens when they burst out again, though, taking along the children who have introduced them to the wonders of (truck) books and other reading. Towering massively atop heavy-duty tires, with wide, headlight eyes and toothy maws agape, Gall’s brawny beasts make modern construction vehicles look like jumped-up SmartCars. But even the most brutish dinotrux can find a place in today’s world, as the final playground scene suggests.
Young fans of all things big and noisy will make trax for this dynamic dino-diversion. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-13288-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
