All in all, clever, bouncy fun.
How does a race car get ready for bed?
After a high-octane day, this anthropomorphic race car is tired and “wringing with sweat.” His headlights blink on, and he drives to the pit for a good bath. In addition to the foamy sudsing, he also washes his rims and shines up his chrome. Now he’s as good as new; baby blue with a thick gold stripe running right down the middle and a big “2” on the doors. It’s also time for an oil change; at the shop, “he guzzles and gulps each dark, oily drop.” Now he’s ready for sleep, but not before a good bedtime story. He chooses Run Cheetah, “a book that’s all about speed.” Resting in a green field studded with trees, he “snuggles his wrench” under one wheel as the moon shines bright. He turns on the heat to warm up his grille. “His engine now hums. He lets out a snore. / His bumpers relax and sprawl on the floor.” Chriscoe’s crisply rhyming text is enlivened by lots of punny expressions and colorful language, and little readers are not likely to be sticklers about things like sweaty cars. Mottram’s artwork is similarly bright and lively, though youngsters will notice that the little car doesn’t seem to have a grille, and the “floor” he sprawls on is grass.
All in all, clever, bouncy fun. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7624-5964-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug.
What to do when you’re a prickly animal hankering for a hug? Why, find another misfit animal also searching for an embrace!
Sweet but “tricky to hug” little Hedgehog is down in the dumps. Wandering the forest, Hedgehog begs different animals for hugs, but each rejects them. Readers will giggle at their panicked excuses—an evasive squirrel must suddenly count its three measly acorns; a magpie begins a drawn-out song—but will also be indignant on poor hedgehog’s behalf. Hedgehog has the appealingly pink-cheeked softness typical of Dunbar’s art, and the gentle watercolors are nonthreatening, though she also captures the animals’ genuine concern about being poked. A wise owl counsels the dejected hedgehog that while the prickles may frighten some, “there’s someone for everyone.” That’s when Hedgehog spots a similarly lonely tortoise, rejected due to its “very hard” shell but perfectly matched for a spiky new friend. They race toward each other until the glorious meeting, marked with swoony peach swirls and overjoyed grins. At this point, readers flip the book to hear the same gloomy tale from the tortoise’s perspective until it again culminates in that joyous hug, a book turn that’s made a pleasure with thick creamy paper and solid binding.
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-571-34875-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Should appeal to all the little grump trucks hauling their feelings about.
When dump trucks get angry (really, really angry), head for the hills!
Little Dump Truck is “the happiest member of the construction crew.” Assisting everyone from Excavator to Bulldozer, she hauls her load merrily. But sometimes things just don’t go her way. In rapid succession, dirt is blown in her face, a tire is punctured, and a flock of birds mistake her for a lavatory. Now she’s Little Grump Truck, and the exceedingly poor advice from her co-workers (“Ignore it. You’ll be fine”; “Shake it off!”) pushes her too far. After Little Grump Truck unloads (figuratively and literally) on her colleagues, everyone else has the “grumpies” too. It isn’t until she closes her eyes and focuses that Little Dump Truck is able to clear her mind and lighten her mood. Apologies are in order, and soon everything is humming (for the time being, anyway). Though the narrative doesn’t drill the message home, both child and adult readers alike will hopefully pick up on the fact that pithy aphorisms are maddeningly unhelpful when one is in a bad mood. Gray skies accompany the dump truck’s mood, which is depicted as an ever morphing agglomeration of hard, black scribbles. The accompanying art serves its purpose, investing its trucks with personality via time-honored headlight, windshield-wiper, and grille facial features. Little Dump Truck has a purple cab and green bed and a single lash on each headlight eye. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Should appeal to all the little grump trucks hauling their feelings about. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30081-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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