Vehicular verses with an animal twist: storytime candy.
Animal-vehicle hybrids are on the move by land, sea, and air.
“Some vehicles go VROOM! / Some animals say ROAR! // Put them both together / and find out what’s in store!” Take, for instance, a lion and limousine mashup, with a lion chauffeur driving around lion glitterati, or a tiger-styled train full of tiger commuters speeding down the tracks. “Down beneath the river / swims a SALMON-SUBMARINE. / It glides against the current / as it travels up the stream.” Cow cars “MOOOve” through the farmlands, and monkey mopeds zip through the jungles. There are seal ships and bee blimps and even subway snakes, bat balloons, and bear busses and tractor turtles all full of the animals they resemble. “These passengers had so much fun— / in water, land, and sky. / But the animals ARE ON THE GO… // so HONK / and say ‘Good-bye!’ ” Frost’s couplet-filled, rhymefest of silliness is sure to please young animal lovers and very little vehicle connoisseurs. The candy-bright illustrations, nearly all double-page spreads, are packed with happy commuting animals and were created digitally using painted textures. Additional details, such as baby turtles playing at the beach and accessorized fish, delight.
Vehicular verses with an animal twist: storytime candy. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5671-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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BOOK REVIEW
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