Celebrating kids, art, and supportive communities, this gem deserves a wide audience.
Award-winning illustrator Taylor honors artistic expression and community support for street art in his authorial debut.
Narrator Sam moves cross-country with Mom and Dad, trading their beloved, pulsing city for a small, quiet town. Sam feels like an outsider “from another planet” at school, “ready to take the first spacecraft home.” A downtown encounter with gorgeous graffiti on a wall that spells out “EXPAND!!!” wows Sam, evoking the vibrancy of the city. But when Sam and older cousin Lincoln return, they find the wall painted over. Lincoln knows that street art hides all over town, though: “tags in the alley, stickers on street signs, stencils on the corner,” and more. “You just have to know where to look!” The pair then discover something extraordinary: an abandoned factory, alive with diverse graffiti artists transforming its interior walls. Sam, approaching a busy mother-daughter team, learns that the town has sanctioned the venue for rehabilitation as a community art space. Invited, Sam dons a respirator and gets to work. Final pages reveal the protagonist’s giant self-portrait as an astronaut against the word HOME, extending the theme of artistic and personal expansion. Taylor’s vibrant, explosive illustrations vividly capture street art’s dynamism in a palette with purple and gold highlights. He encodes messages of positivity into the graffiti—“XPLORE,” “HOPE”—as well as names and personal references. Sam, Lincoln, and Sam’s parents are Black; the mother and daughter Sam meets are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Celebrating kids, art, and supportive communities, this gem deserves a wide audience. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-62672-294-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.
After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9780063436121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
© 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.
