A pleasant story about a curious horse that will spark the imaginations of young readers.
A horse wonders what kind of new shoes she could possibly wear in Scogin’s debut children’s book.
Penny is a bright, curious palomino quarter horse who spends her days playing outside in the grass with her friend, the ranch dog, lapping up water from the stream, and chasing “black and gold butterflies until the sleepy sun hid itself behind the mountains.” It’s a straightforward, easy life until she overhears her owner, Mr. Dollarhide, saying that Penny will be getting new shoes the next day. The little horse, perplexed by what she heard, wonders why a horse would need shoes and thinks about all the types of shoes she’s seen: the 13-year-old son of her owner, for example, has sneakers with wheels; the 19-year-old daughter wears teetering high heels; and Mr. Dollarhide wears “well-worn silver leather cowboy boots with points in the front,” which “looked very comfortable on him.” She imagines her big horse hooves wearing each of the shoes—she would move in four different directions with wheels on her feet, smash the delicate high heels with her heavy hooves, and wouldn’t fit into narrow cowboy boots. The next morning, Mr. Dollarhide shows Penny just what her new shoes look like, and she realizes that they’re just right. This warmly written story, told with humor in Ray’s colorful illustrations and Scogin’s rich, descriptive language, introduces a character that kids will relate to. Penny is energetic and curious about the world and about herself; for example, when she imagines wearing other people’s shoes, she sees how their lives are different from hers but also understands how their shoes work well for them. When she finally receives her own pair of silver horseshoes, it's clear that she’s thrilled—her tail “wiggled, wagged, whipped, and whirled with excitement”—because she has a pair of shoes that’s uniquely hers.
A pleasant story about a curious horse that will spark the imaginations of young readers.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sarah Book Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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