An imaginative and potentially useful teaching tool despite occasional puzzling graphics.
A schoolteacher introduces readers to the concept of zero in Konkol’s second picture book.
Mrs. Wiggles may be a teacher without a class, but her work isn’t over. As she stands in front of her blackboard one day, the numbers written on it come alive and leap to the ground. The newly animated numerals need educating, so Mrs. Wiggles calls the roll, thus prompting the numbers to introduce themselves to the reader by their names. The reader meets the numbers, from One (“I am One, amazing me!”) to Nine (“I am Nine, a sleepy head”), each with its own distinct personality. Zero suddenly emerges and confesses that they don’t always know where they fit in. With the help of classmates, Zero can find a way to be more than nothing and help the others improve themselves. Konkol’s simple picture book (following Who’s Behind the Mask, 2020) is a helpful introduction to numerals and the concept of two-digit numbers. However, Konkol misses an opportunity to tie the numbers’ personalities to their numerical values and to include easily countable items in her accompanying illustrations. The details in some illustrations are so subtle as to be easily missed, such as the seven small rosettes on Mrs. Wiggles’ teacup when she meets polite Seven. The images themselves are often colorful and child-friendly, although Konkol’s choice to position Two on the toilet is somewhat questionable.
An imaginative and potentially useful teaching tool despite occasional puzzling graphics.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781735919621
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Lisa Konkol Gallery, LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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