There's probably no more potent visual statement in American child-life than the ubiquitous yellow school bus. Crews catches some aspects of this universal drama, and misses others. The jacket is splendid—the acid yellow of the bus against cream; so is the opening spread—"yellow school buses" massed, row upon row. Then comes two school buses, "Large and small." And, at an intersection: "Empty yellow buses cross the town." "Going this way," "Going that way," they pick up children. "Here it comes" to the kids lined up at the curb. But after "Full buses head for school," the enterprise goes limp: instead of kids piling out and horsing around, there's the caption "Right on time"—and the kids file almost decorously under a pinky-lavender canopy with the letters SCHOOL. Going home, there's no sign of a change in demeanor, and little of the familiar homecoming drama either. Stylistically, Crews has tried combining his well-known flat forms with lighter-colored, looser-outlined figures and a watery wash for the landscape features (buildings, trees, grass). It could be both vitalizing and humanizing—but it doesn't quite work. The watercolor forms are truly wishy-washy; the figures are still unindividuated; and graying-over the windows of the bus (presumably to suggest the reflectiveness of glass) seems an especially unfortunate decision—it obliterates the kids from the outside; and obliterates the outside from them. Altogether: more an out-line of the daily school bus to-and-from than a dramatization.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1984
ISBN: 0688122671
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1984
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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