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CAT IS WHERE IT'S AT!

Simple text, accessible vocabulary, and plentiful photos may spark conversations about the types of jobs that machines can...

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A versatile vehicle is the subject of Gebhart’s (Deere is Right Here!, 2017, etc.) latest picture book for very young readers.

“This is CAT!” the book’s narrator announces with enthusiasm, introducing kids to a Caterpillar skid-steer loader vehicle, alongside a photo showing the machine in profile. Although the CAT in the first picture has treads, the CAT in the second has wheels and a drill, showing a particular task that the machine can do. The next has treads again and carries sod to a lawn in a forklift. This picture book is full of partial-page images, accompanied by sparse but easy-to-decipher text, which show a variety of CAT’s jobs—“CAT carries a log” and “CAT scoops gravel” among them. A photo of a small, toy CAT shows that the machine is popular enough to be found in a child’s home, and two other photos show CAT’s drivers. There’s little sense of continuity from one picture to the next—each CAT has different features, and the mentions of “help” by CAT’s drivers aren’t placed consecutively. However, pre-K readers interested in construction vehicles, as well as very newly independent readers, will appreciate the short, concise sentences, which clearly describe the action in each photograph. The final page sums up the types of actions that CAT can take: drilling, scooping, and carrying, “all with help!” The amount of white space and the large print make the book highly approachable, overall. The photos are of varying quality (and one bears a website label), but each clearly depicts its subject in a way that will entice lap-readers to point to the machine’s features or imagine its noises with help and prompting.

Simple text, accessible vocabulary, and plentiful photos may spark conversations about the types of jobs that machines can do.

Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5441-0203-0

Page Count: 34

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: April 18, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83271-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

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