Yet another spark for young imaginations.
Similar to Hilb’s Wiggle Giggle Tickle Train (with co-author Sharon Jennings and photographer Marcela Cabezas Hilb, 2009), this imaginative romp shows kids using nature to fuel their creative play through all the seasons of the year.
Left-hand pages feature beautiful stock photos of (mostly) nature that encompass the four seasons—a blossoming tree, rainfall, a growing pumpkin and a snowplow at work are among the 13. Right-hand pages showcase Hilb’s watercolors of children patterning their play after nature. A photo of a frog appears opposite two children jumping over a log, a rainbow prompts a coloring session and some geese flying overhead lead the children to use toy horns to copy their calls. But it is the addition of the Shapiros’ rollicking verses that truly make this an all-around enjoyable collaboration. The waterfall spread is a standout, the children pouring water from a large bucket into a smaller one on the ground: “Slosh from the big one / into the small. / Whooshing and sloshing—your own waterfall. / SPLASH!” Rhythm and rhyme are spot-on, and the bouncy verses and onomatopoetic words are sure to catch and hold listeners’ attention. The combination of rhyme, simple vocabulary, bright colors, white backgrounds and simple details suits this beautifully for the preschool set. Hilb’s trademark style is definitely in evidence here—the pages are populated by adorable rosy-cheeked and ethnically diverse children engaged in the business of play.
Yet another spark for young imaginations. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-386-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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
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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