Lyrically dazzling, artistically stunning.
Stained glass–like cutouts depict the sky from dawn to dusk.
Caldecott Honor author/illustrator Becker takes readers on a visually striking, poetic journey through the day with the vibrant sky as the backdrop. The board book opens, “Its dawn begins in darkness,” and a swirl of thick black lines and geometric cutouts scrawl across the page. The cutouts, scattered throughout, have colorful, translucent inserts. Holding them up to a light source (for most success, try a sunny window) gives these a stained-glass effect in a palette matching the page. Each cutout complements the page that it is first found on as well as the next layout, mimicking the way the sky shifts subtly throughout the day, with colors evolving and deepening but not completely vanishing. Becker’s blend of hues is strategically chosen to resemble the delicate mix of blues, purples, and pinks that accompany an early morning sky. As the day progresses, there are orangey pinks, light blues, and little white patches that suggest clouds. The darkening sky at dusk reflects the morning’s pinks and purples until it becomes a dark purple with white sprays of stars: night. Between Becker’s poetic text, featuring satisfying alliteration (“We wonder at its wildness”) and the amazing sense of movement and color, readers are treated to a feast for the ears, eyes, and imagination.
Lyrically dazzling, artistically stunning. (Board book. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2536-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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