A moving tale for vehicle lovers to share on Father’s Day—and beyond.
This firm but caring dad leads by example.
Before sunrise, five small, blanket-draped skids awaken, “ready for some big, LOUD fun!” Slower to rouse, Big Loader “s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s in slow motion, / awakened by the skid commotion!” He checks the little ones’ tires and ensures they’re fueled up and each fitted with different attachments. All are destined to “dig and move 500 tons!” Their project is unspecified, but the big guy is there to oversee it all, patiently showing the others how to work safely and efficiently. He’s proud to see the little ones “learn how to pull their weight, / to share, and to cooperate”—after all, “teamwork makes a family.” By day’s end, the skids still aren’t sleepy; they’d rather play! As night falls, Big Loader tucks the little ones in under their blankets, with a couple clutching stuffies, before turning in himself. The narrator lovingly pays tribute to this “great machine, so kind and smart.” While references to parenthood are limited to the book’s title, it takes no interpretive skill to see Big Loader as a father figure, and Ford’s tender illustrations invest the yellow steel vehicle with the maximum warmth possible. Elegantly composed yet utterly sweet, his visuals once more pair beautifully with Rinker’s sparkling verse, conveying tender emotion while also offering plenty of details for those youngsters who can’t get enough of construction machinery.
A moving tale for vehicle lovers to share on Father’s Day—and beyond. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781797238500
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 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.
