A polished, playful story in which words and pictures dance in perfect harmony.
Complementing When Spring Comes (2016) and In the Middle of Fall (2017), a picture book that celebrates the winter season.
In small bites of text that allow pauses for readers to savor the illustrations and to connect with their own winter recollections, this accomplished picture book details the season of winter. Henkes’ text is simple but evocative, observing winter in perceptive and sometimes-playful detail. Dronzek’s acrylic illustrations—presented in a variety of double-page spreads, spot illustrations, and single-page images—enrich and deepen the text as they add story details and warmth with their saturated colors and masterful line. An amusing series of spot illustrations punctuated with perfect text engages readers in the laborious chore of dressing for winter (“Boots and zippers / and vests and zippers / and jackets and zippers”). The opening double-page spread—a park in winter with people of various skin tones sledding, building a snowman, skating, talking, and walking their dogs—becomes the grounding point for the story. As the story meanders along (in a very good way), readers will recognize the pond, the house, the child from the opening illustration, which deepens the overall narrative. When, at the story’s end, winter becomes spring, the same park scene is shown but now with blooming cherry trees and green grass, and so the cyclic nature of the seasons is visually emphasized.
A polished, playful story in which words and pictures dance in perfect harmony. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-274718-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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