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I AM AN AIRPLANE

Name: I AM AN AIRPLANE
Author: Tom Lapadula
ISBN: 978-1-338-33487-6

illustrated by Tom Lapadula ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2019

Detailed illustrations coupled with rich vocabulary will certainly take readers up, up, and away! (Board book. 2-4)

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This brief board book explains four different types of aircraft with short descriptions of each.

This quick, airplane-shaped read with glossy, thick board pages takes to the skies with surprisingly detailed illustrations of both familiar and lesser-known planes. The four shown—an airliner, a floatplane, a reconnaissance plane, and a light aircraft—are certainly high-interest for many young readers. The illustrations are vibrant and incredibly detailed, lifting this book into preschool territory: The ground crew’s tiny batons, the details on the luggage carrier and ramp right down to the levers and connectors, even the mini “caution” tag on the Air Force plane is legible. The colors are rich and vibrant, including a green patchwork of fields and the soft pinks of sunset on water. There are only a few people depicted, and not on every page, but they all present white. Though the text itself is straightforward, the vocabulary is rich with words such as “alight” and “survey” (not to mention the aforementioned “reconnaissance”), not typical board-book language. The similarly fashioned I Am a Tractor reads from the tractor’s point of view. A stereotypical white man is the farmer, but the illustrations are otherwise as detailed and the text as specific as Airplane.

Detailed illustrations coupled with rich vocabulary will certainly take readers up, up, and away! (Board book. 2-4)

Pub Date: July 9, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-338-33487-6

Page Count: 8

Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

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HERE COME THE HELPERS

by Leslie Kimmelman ; illustrated by Barbara Bakos ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018

The lack of real excitement will make these helpers fade from memory like sirens on a distant road.

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Part emergency adventure, part reassurance that help is on the way—youngsters fascinated by vehicles with sirens will be attracted to this board book.

Straightforward, declarative text and fanciful, somewhat futuristic pictures describe “a big beautiful world, filled with awesome adventures.” The second spread previews the helpers and their vehicles with profile views of six types of vehicles against a clean white background. The final spread shows front views of the same six rescue vehicles. In between, spreads focus on three different emergencies. In a busy spread headlined “Uh-oh, an accident,” readers see a police car, an ambulance, and a tow truck, while a police helicopter hovers overhead. “Uh-oh, a storm!” shows the water-based versions of emergency vehicles against a rain-gray background. “Uh-oh, a fire!” focuses on firefighters, with police and EMTs playing supporting roles. All the vehicles are staffed by smiling animal characters reminiscent of Richard Scarry’s Busytown creatures but without the whimsy of those classics. The final text proclaims that “helpers…are the ones who save the world.” The wordy text and detailed pictures make this board book most suited for older toddlers intrigued by emergency vehicles, but the placid delivery is out of sync with the notion that the depicted world is in peril.

The lack of real excitement will make these helpers fade from memory like sirens on a distant road. (Board book. 3-4)

Pub Date: May 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5344-0599-8

Page Count: 14

Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

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by Leslie Kimmelman ; illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich

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by Leslie Kimmelman ; illustrated by Hilli Kushnir

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by Leslie Kimmelman ; illustrated by Jessie Hartland

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POP-UP OCEAN

by Ingela P. Arrhenius ; illustrated by Ingela P. Arrhenius ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2018

Serviceable, reasonably toddler-friendly fare.

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Denizens of the deep in diminutive 3-D displays.

Arranged in a seemingly arbitrary sequence, the 15 figures popping up, one per spread, in this small, square volume include some dolllike humans or human artifacts but are mostly very simply rendered sea animals sporting smiles and big eyes. All feature one- or two-word identifiers and hover above monochrome backgrounds enhanced, sometimes, with a simple nautical detail. The pop-ups, constructed largely from reverse folds, are designed as static compositions aside from a crab that waves its claws at viewers as the spread opens. Other than a similar but not identical boat and a subway train, the equally simple vehicles in the co-published Pop-Up Things That Go! roll on or fly over dry land. In both books, human figures are all white except for one of three firefighters and a child collecting a cone from the “ice cream van” in Things That Go! (which also places the driver of its bus on the British side).

Serviceable, reasonably toddler-friendly fare. (Pop-up picture book. 2-4)