An enjoyable tale of cross-country travel from a young bird’s perspective.
A gosling accompanies his family on a trip from Ontario to British Columbia in this debut illustrated children’s book.
The night before a White family’s holiday trip from North Bay, Ontario, to Vancouver, British Columbia, its incubator-raised gosling pecks his way out of the shell, announcing: “HELLO, I’M RALPH. / I’M HERE TO STAY!” The young gander can’t be left alone, so the family decides to bring him along in a hay-lined box. Ralphy is excited about traveling, though he doesn’t enjoy staying in his box and would rather be held. That’s not always convenient, so the open glove compartment becomes his cozy nest, where he can look around at Canada’s scenery and tourist attractions or socialize between naps. At motels, which usually say NO PETS, Ralphy gets a bathroom-sink pond to splash in. When the car breaks down near the Rocky Mountains, Ralphy sees his first snow. The gosling and his family get a warm welcome in Vancouver, and on a visit to Stanley Park, Ralphy meets wild geese. They invite him to stay, but the gosling is nothing if not self-confident. He’s proud to be a “genuine pet” and is looking forward to returning home, where he’s hoping for his own pool. In her book, Bartsch offers an amusingly self-centered hero. Children can get a sense of the pace of long car trips from the story as well as an introduction to Canadian travel. The tale’s rhyming couplets sometimes scan well but often stumble in meter or rely on iffy rhymes, as in “I can’t wait to grow. Once grown up, / I’ll get my very own bathtub.”Heyman, illustrating her first children’s book, supplies watercolors that are somewhat unpolished, especially when depicting human figures, but deftly render Ralphy’s charm.
An enjoyable tale of cross-country travel from a young bird’s perspective.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5255-9821-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2022
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
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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