This engaging animal tale affirms that meaningful experiences exist outside holiday festivities.
In this picture book, it’s hard to be a little porcupine who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa.
In the yellow light of a chilly morning, Annie worries about the last day of school before winter break. On the ride to school, just as she has dreaded, Annie’s friend Maggie asks about her Christmas tree. Annie doesn’t have one because she doesn’t observe the holiday. Scowling a little, she explains. But throughout the day, kids chatter about Hanukkah, letters to Santa, and Christmas tunes, and the holiday zeal becomes oppressive. The students’ cheerful assumptions grate, and Annie feels lonely, without presents to talk about or holiday spirit. With solitude comes anger. After an outburst, she feels lingering anxiety: Is her porcupine family weird? It’s only when she is at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the woods with a roaring fire, carrot cake, and moonlit snow that she appreciates that even without holidays, her family spends important quality time together. Neumann’s work is a little long for lap readers—though perhaps it will spark discussions with elementary school students. Still, Annie’s story is likely to resonate with kids who feel upset and frustrated by the centrality and omnipresence of holiday celebrations in social life. Rusu’s lively, warm-toned watercolors and energetic scratchy lines buoy a narrative unafraid of affirming children’s understandable anger at their experiences not being recognized—though the effect of Annie’s bad mood on her peers remains unexplored.
This engaging animal tale affirms that meaningful experiences exist outside holiday festivities.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-953910-15-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires.
Little Blue Truck feels, well, blue when he delivers valentine after valentine but receives nary a one.
His bed overflowing with cards, Blue sets out to deliver a yellow card with purple polka dots and a shiny purple heart to Hen, one with a shiny fuchsia heart to Pig, a big, shiny, red heart-shaped card to Horse, and so on. With each delivery there is an exchange of Beeps from Blue and the appropriate animal sounds from his friends, Blue’s Beeps always set in blue and the animal’s vocalization in a color that matches the card it receives. But as Blue heads home, his deliveries complete, his headlight eyes are sad and his front bumper droops ever so slightly. Blue is therefore surprised (but readers may not be) when he pulls into his garage to be greeted by all his friends with a shiny blue valentine just for him. In this, Blue’s seventh outing, it’s not just the sturdy protagonist that seems to be wilting. Schertle’s verse, usually reliable, stumbles more than once; stanzas such as “But Valentine’s Day / didn’t seem much fun / when he didn’t get cards / from anyone” will cause hitches during read-alouds. The illustrations, done by Joseph in the style of original series collaborator Jill McElmurry, are pleasant enough, but his compositions often feel stiff and forced.
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-27244-1
Page Count: 20
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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