Reassuring.
A child goes through a day at preschool, feeling many moods along the way.
This textually ungendered child (with medium-length dark hair in a barrette) awakens pink-cheeked and smiling, in a bedroom awash with pink, with a pink sun shining in. “You’re pink,” says the second-person text. On the next spread, “You’re teal”: The child gazes contentedly through the teal-colored water in a fish tank housing a teal-colored fish. Each spread highlights one hue, and items follow that change deliciously from page to page: The pajama top that was checked pink becomes checked teal; a picture of an ice cream cone, previously pink, turns teal. The verse patters gently: “You’re scarlet, / mauve, and purpley too. / Lilac, / magenta, / a quiet ecru.” Some colors have traditional mood connections: gray or blue for sadness, red for anger. Some carry other meanings: “every golden, warmy shade” shows the warmth of the preschool’s vibe and claims racial diversity for the class. (Eye shape and hair texture imply racial distinctions, though everyone has the matte white skin of the background paper, including the protagonist.) The occasional obscure mood-color connection doesn’t detract, and although some moods’ causes go unexplained, they can be guessed at. Sicuro’s ink figures and watercolor-and-gouache backgrounds have a light, earnest touch. Pair with Tameka Fryer Brown and Shane W. Evans’ bright and imaginative My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood (2013).
Reassuring. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5846-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 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
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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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