bookshelf

LITTLE BLUE TRUCK LEADS THE WAY

Name: LITTLE BLUE TRUCK LEADS THE WAY
Author: Alice Schertle
ISBN: 978-0-15-206389-4

by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2009

bookshelf

Little Blue is back, here the innocent instigator of a tremendous traffic jam (Little Blue Truck, 2008). While Little Blue is in awe over the size and speed of the city, the sight of such a country bumpkin is too much to bear for many of the self-absorbed city vehicles, who angrily tell Little Blue to “Shove on, Shorty.” But in their rush to get somewhere, they forget an important detail that the little truck points out: “You might be fast / and I might be slow, / but one at a time / is the way to go.” In the end, Little Blue saves the day for the mayor, untangles the traffic snafu and earns the city vehicles’ respect. McElmurry’s wonderfully retro gouache illustrations lend personality to each of the vehicles. Readers truly get a sense of movement—the back ends of the vehicles are a streaky blur, while their exhaust pipes spew smoke and the street sweeper fills the page with dust clouds. Still, the let’s-all-get-in-line message may well pall with youngsters, if not their teachers. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-15-206389-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK AND RACER RED
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

bookshelf

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

bookshelf

Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

bookshelf

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

GET IT

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2013

A comical, fresh look at crayons and color.

bookshelf

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

GET IT

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

Duncan wants to draw, but instead of crayons, he finds a stack of letters listing the crayons’ demands in this humorous tale.

Red is overworked, laboring even on holidays. Gray is exhausted from coloring expansive spaces (elephants, rhinos and whales). Black wants to be considered a color-in color, and Peach? He’s naked without his wrapper! This anthropomorphized lot amicably requests workplace changes in hand-lettered writing, explaining their work stoppage to a surprised Duncan. Some are tired, others underutilized, while a few want official titles. With a little creativity and a lot of color, Duncan saves the day. Jeffers delivers energetic and playful illustrations, done in pencil, paint and crayon. The drawings are loose and lively, and with few lines, he makes his characters effectively emote. Clever spreads, such as Duncan’s “white cat in the snow” perfectly capture the crayons’ conundrum, and photographic representations of both the letters and coloring pages offer another layer of texture, lending to the tale’s overall believability.

A comical, fresh look at crayons and color. (Picture book. 3-7)