Flighty fun.
Zephyr, a buoyant, gum-chewing lass obsessed with airplanes, achieves a fantastical flight—and gets home in time for breakfast—in this enjoyable romp.
Grandma, Daddy and Mom are all too busy to play. Executing her “triple loop-de-loop spectacular” off the couch with her toy plane, she crashes into a cabinet full of bric-a-brac. Banished to her room, she sends a paper airplane behind her dresser. There, she discovers a small door leading into a “wondrous place” full of flying machines and propellers and with a desk full of books and maps. Climbing aboard the “FS Bessie” (Light’s nod to pioneering flyer Bessie Coleman), Zephyr’s off. “Her triple loop-de-loop spectacular was much more fun in the sky!” Ensuing spreads depict a harmless “BUMP” into a mountainous land where flying pigs dwell in trees. After the dexterous girl fashions paper wings for a flightless piglet, the porcine fliers help power her craft back into the sky. Light’s fountain pens produce boldly inked contours and appealingly frenetic gestural line. Colored pencils and PanPastels in sienna, ochre and yellow effect a mood both sunny and old-timey. Observant readers will note images of Zephyr’s aviator grandfather throughout—clearly, her zeal for flight is inherited. (Flying pigs are a favored collectible in her family, too.) Zipping from fanciful flight to a “triple-hug, triple-pancake spectacular,” Zephyr’s surely not earthbound for long.
Flighty fun. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5695-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Perfect for the very young truck fanatic.
All kinds of bruising vehicles have a part in creating a new housing development in this muscular import from the U.K.
First comes the big red wrecker, its ball swinging to bash the old buildings to the ground. Then the planners come, to measure and mark, followed by the bulldozers, who “shave and shift and shove all day.” The type goes across the page in various directions and routes, sometimes bold and even bolder, from tiny to enormous. Diggers and tippers (dump trucks) are next, to finish the job of preparing the ground, then cement mixers, to lay the concrete foundation. Then sturdy trucks show up with cement blocks and other building materials. Busy builders go to work with hard hats and hammers and hods, and the buildings start to rise. Some materials need a crane. Steamrollers help smooth out all the bumpy bits. Before long, the trucks coming to the site are moving vans, full of furniture and the other belongings of all the families that will be moving into these immaculate new homes. Steggall’s use of color makes stars of her machines; the buildings and ground, with scant greenery, are in earth tones, while gleaming bright vehicles—in orange and bold yellow and blue—really pop in her textured collages. Her text has lots of phonic and onomatopoeic crunch as well.
Perfect for the very young truck fanatic. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84780-288-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
A beautifully composed package filled with whimsy and wisdom—the story of this unique vessel will inspire and entertain...
A philosophical fox full of questions boards a ship with strangers and discovers that finding friends is even better than finding answers.
Russet-furred Marco wonders about everything. His fellow foxes care mainly about dinner. When a great, antlered wooden ship, captained by a deer named Sylvia, docks in the harbor, Marco goes down to see it. Intrigued by the possibility of finding other foxes who share his curiosity, Marco decides to set sail, as do an adventurous flock of pigeons led by Victor, pictured as a one-legged bird in a bandanna. While they struggle a bit with the unfamiliar tasks and are beset by the typical dangers that sailors face, Marco, Sylvia, and Victor each contribute to the success of their journey. In the mostly dreamy, delicate pen-and-pencil illustrations, colored digitally, Marco the fox and the other animals are shown as sapient but not completely anthropomorphized. The antlered ship is delightfully detailed and decorated, the pirates our heroes encounter are appropriately toothy and threatening (even the cutlass-wielding mouse), and the sepia-colored maps on the endpapers feature deliciously evocative names. The old-fashioned appearance of the Fans’ artwork perfectly suits Slater’s contemplative, musing tone. While the ending is hardly a surprise, it feels right, true, and not the least bit clichéd.
A beautifully composed package filled with whimsy and wisdom—the story of this unique vessel will inspire and entertain thoughtful listeners. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5160-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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