Toddlers will instantly identify with this simply adorable little hero as he rolls through life.
A day in the life of a little pink truck.
Little Truck travels fast and climbs hills, accompanied by a salmon-colored larger truck, likely a caregiver stand-in. This flatbed truck follows Little Truck, giving him a boost up a hill, and after Little Truck goes into a tunnel and becomes lost for a couple of page turns, he emerges fast asleep on the back of the larger truck. Each double-page spread depicts a scene from Little Truck’s journey and is accompanied by one to three sentences of simple text, which often reads as if the bigger truck were speaking with Little Truck. Gomi’s signature style is in top form here. All this master uses to create the bodies of the trucks are squares, rectangles, and circles, adding dots and dashes to create eyes, mouths, and rosy cheeks to give them personality. The deliberately sparse backgrounds of tawny browns, tans, and deep grays allow the trucks visually to pop off the page. That this little pink truck is explicitly given the masculine pronoun is a delightful, gender-norm–busting detail.
Toddlers will instantly identify with this simply adorable little hero as he rolls through life. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6300-0
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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