Despite quibbles, it’s a charmer
Barefoot but otherwise clothed critters have a full day, collecting friends along the way.
A gray fox girl enjoys a bit of time by herself. “A quiet day reading is perfect for one. / Books take you everywhere under the sun. / But when the story is over you might start to feel blue / And realize your day would be better with… // Two!” Two friends are perfect for making pancakes, but after a yummy breakfast, playing outside is more fun with three than two. Four is a great number of buddies for getting chores done swiftly, and so on. One critter of a different species (including a triceratops) is added to the ever more diverse troupe of friends for each new task or event…until they head home with 12: “As the forest grows dark we head home for the night, / Led by our friend with good evening eyesight. / The stories are spooky and darkness is near / But with us twelve together, there’s nothing to fear.” And the gray fox beds down alone, one again. White’s follow-up to Adventures with Barefoot Critters (2014) is a charming cumulative counting tale, though the verse occasionally strains for rhyme and scansion. Both boys and girls are represented (distinguished by such stereotypical visual clues as attire and presence or absence of eyelashes) in the pastel-hued watercolor illustrations.
Despite quibbles, it’s a charmer . (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-10191-771-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections.
A young rabbit frets about her upcoming violin performance in Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s literary debut.
Mei Mei’s dream—“to share her music with the world”—is about to come true. She’s having her very first recital, complete with an orchestra, at the H’Opera House. But the day before the concert, Mei Mei is racked with anxiety. What if she plays a bum note in front of everyone? Sure enough, the worst happens mid-performance: She hits a clinker. But by remembering her mom’s reassuring sentiments from the night before (“Feel the wind…find the notes to make it right”), Mei Mei summons the strength to soldier on, and “wrong notes become right. Dissonance becomes beautiful.” At times, it all feels more like a resilience parable than a story, and the writing can be precious (“The flutter of butterflies wakes Mei Mei from her slumber”). Still, the message is solid, bolstered by O’Hara’s pencil and watercolor illustrations, which are plush-toy soft—fitting, as even prior to this book’s publication, a stuffed Mei Mei has been for sale at Grammy winner Laufey’s website. The tale features an all-animal, all-adorable cast, and endearingly, the art betrays no hint of modern times. A standout image presents Mei Mei onstage, temporarily incapacitated by her mistake and imagining her fellow musicians and their instruments with the color-blasted menace of an expressionist painting.
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217051748
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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