Serviceable and forgettable
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of zzzzzz.
Half-Pint Pete sails the Seven Seas in search of treasure. Trouble is, Pete only has half a map to his name. When he comes in contact with the equally piratical Half-Baked Belle, a lass in possession of the map’s missing parts, the two decide to team up and find the treasure together. Pete’s plan to do away with Belle after the gold is uncovered flies out the window when the mission ends successfully and Pete discovers that the two of them make a perfect pair. Bardhan-Quallen presents a perfunctory, if well-scanned, series of alternating rhymes. Children with either a love or a fear of grungy pirates will find that this uniformly cheery, peg-legged crew are a far cry from the murderous plunderers of lore. The art is of a bit more interest. Brazilian illustrator Valério takes care to hide sly details in his colorful, preschool-friendly acrylics (though one wonders why precisely Valério absolutely had to make Pirate Belle so very pink, right down to her rose-colored eye patch). There are many pirate books out there that would best this one in terms of writing, art and general lawless glee, but this meets all the general requirements of an innocuous pirate tale for younger children.
Serviceable and forgettable . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-25173-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A clever idea, but it’s not likely to need more than a one-way ticket.
A locomotive slides along a continuous slot that winds its way through a series of settings.
Instructions on the rear cover are required reading. The journey begins by pushing the small plastic toy parked on the last page through a tunnel in the heavy board leaves to the front. “As sunrise glows red on the bay,” the pinned locomotive can then be pushed along on a looping course to the edge of the page and (with a tricky but, with practice, smooth transition) around the overleaf to a “desert bright with orange clay.” The ride continues across a flat prairie farm, up a green mountainside, down through a twilit town, and past city skyscrapers to a railyard—whereupon the slot loops back around to the beginning. It’s all about the gimmick; aside from a distant rider on a horse in the desert scene, the landscapes are empty of human figures and, being as generic as the accompanying rhyme throughout, much of anything else to look at or for. The engine has no moving parts, nor does it pull any cars, and while it won’t fall out of the slot on its own, little fingers won’t have much trouble pulling it free.
A clever idea, but it’s not likely to need more than a one-way ticket. (Novelty board book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-8716-5
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Four-wheeled fun, if a little unbalanced.
The big trucks work hard all day, and at night they sleep, just like us.
Near the highway, as vehicles “vroooom” by, big trucks are busy building a road. “Digger’s sharp teeth hit the earth. / He’s clawing holes for all he’s worth.” Backhoe “jolts and judders,” making the “whole road shudder.” Dump truck carries away heaps of earth. Grader has a “giant blade,” which “gets the sticky asphalt laid.” Concrete mixer turns sand, gravel, and cement, churning them into the new road’s surface. “Dusty plow truck at the double. / Tips his load of stones and rubble.” Last of all comes “huge road roller,” with big impressive wheels, to give the new highway a smooth surface. There’s a double gatefold at the center of the book, giving a panoramic view of all seven colorful trucks, hard at work. After a hard day, the trucks take the exit ramp off to bed. A good rub with a cleaning brush, a cooling spray, and it’s time to rest. “All tucked safely in their yard / they snuggle down, they’ve worked so hard.” Freedman’s crisp and accessible verse is the perfect complement to Smythe’s bright and blocky illustrations, which have a toddler-friendly Lego or Playskool feel. While construction workers and passers-by of both genders and diverse skin tones populate the pages, all the trucks are gendered male—an odd disconnect.
Four-wheeled fun, if a little unbalanced. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9011-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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