An enjoyable but somewhat unpolished and unfocused tween adventure.
Depner continues the escapades of young Fernsnickle Hooves in this third installment of an ongoing children’s book series.
Ten-year-old Fernsnickle is a student at the Oasis, a boarding school for girls near Miami. Mrs. Peabody, the school’s head teacher, is taking eight girls from the school, as well as her English cousin’s grandson, Oliver, on a field trip to Washington, D.C. However, despite the book’s title, Fernsnickle doesn’t arrive at the nation’s capital until two-thirds of the way through the book. First, she receives a letter from her friend Toby, who forwards an old missive from Fernsnickle’s mother, Maude Maryellen Hooves, and a photo. Inspired to find her mom, who left her with her grandmother when she was a baby, Fernsnickle appears on a TV show to publicly ask her to contact her; readers know that her mother is an undercover agent for the FBI. In Washington, D.C., the students touch a piece of the moon at the National Air and Space Museum and eat breakfast at the real-life Dog Tag Bakery, which teaches and trains military veterans. Fernsnickle’s classmates decide to hold a pop-up rally at the Capitol where she delivers a speech on bullying, housing shortages, and climate change; disappointingly, however, the speech’s text isn’t included. Overall, the book delivers some fun moments, including a meeting with the president of the United States. Fernsnickle is a likable character with a strong sense of ethics. However, she often uses nonsense rhyming word pairs such as ever and schmever and anyhoo and schmanyhoo, which could either amuse or irritate readers. References to events in previous books could also cause newcomers to feel out of the loop, and although Fernsnickle briefly mentions that she declined to live with her father, it’s not explained why they currently have no contact. Minor characters are thinly developed, so readers may find it hard to picture them.
An enjoyable but somewhat unpolished and unfocused tween adventure.Pub Date: May 8, 2022
ISBN: 979-8821153906
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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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