A fantasy grounded in real life with a gentle message about loyal friendship.
In Monte’s picture book, a little girl is befriended by a very unusual bike.
When Ellery discovers an old, abandoned purple bicycle, it springs to joyful life, shaking off “mud, dints, and rust” and happily following Ellery home at her hopeful invitation: “Come with me?” The bike teaches the child how to ride it and the two become inseparable playmates. As Ellery grows bigger, the bicycle obligingly grows to fit her. It comforts the girl when she’s sad and even helps her make friends with the prickly boy next door, who joins in their adventures. The story’s fantasy element is delightfully matter-of-fact, as nobody questions how the bike came to life or where it came from. It simply is—and so is the underlying tenderness that Monte brings to her narrative as Ellery passes through childhood to her “daredevil” teenage years and adulthood. For a time, the bicycle gathers dust and spiderwebs, but the satisfying, celebratory conclusion is sure to please the preschool- and elementary-school–age children in the book’s target audience. Prolific children’s book illustrator Saunders matches the narrative’s action and tone with delicate, expressive watercolor-and-ink images that charm with subtle detail and bring the magical bicycle to life without anthropomorphizing it.
A fantasy grounded in real life with a gentle message about loyal friendship.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9875130-7-6
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Bonny Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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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