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TOW TRUCK JOE

Name: TOW TRUCK JOE
Author: June Sobel
ISBN: 978-0-358-05312-5

From the Tow Truck Joe series

by June Sobel ; illustrated by Patrick Corrigan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A delight for car and truck fans young and old.

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Don’t cry over spilled milk. Add crumbled cookies and freeze to make Cookie Crunch ice cream with your friends instead.

Tow truck Joe and his pup, Patch, roam Drivedale honking “Hello!” and helping vehicles (all are anthropomorphic) in trouble. They charge batteries and replace flat tires until “SCREECH! BANG! CRUNCH! CRASH” An accident! It appears the milk truck was going too fast and hit a cart full of cookies. What a mess! Traffic is at a standstill, but Joe, Patch, and all the other trucks help out. The cement mixer is ready. The bulldozer cleans up the cookie crumbles, and the grocery truck supplies sugar and vanilla. Patch adds milk from the milk truck, and the mixer stirs everything up. An ice cream truck offers to freeze the mixture. Voila! Cookie Crunch ice cream! Slowly and carefully, all the vehicles follow Joe and Patch to the garage to end the busy day with scoops of their delicious ice cream creation. Related in an easy, conversational rhyme with clear and bright illustrations, this story is a good read-aloud, but it’s an even better one-on-one read. Children and adults need to pore over the written puns in the illustrations. Signs such as “BIG WHEEL COOKIES—THEY TASTE WHEELY GREAT” and “KNEAD FOR SPEED BAKERY” are too good to miss.

A delight for car and truck fans young and old. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-358-05312-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HMH Books

Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
FIRST DAY, HOORAY!
by June Sobel ; illustrated by Nabila Adani

- BOOK REVIEW
GOODNIGHT TRAIN HALLOWEEN
illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith by June Sobel

- BOOK REVIEW
TOW TRUCK JOE MAKES A SPLASH
by June Sobel ; illustrated by Patrick Corrigan

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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...

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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

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)