The text is dull, but the dazzlingly detailed illustrations and clever flaps make up for it.
Vehicles on the job are put into action with the lift of a flap.
Featuring children’s favorite modes of transportation, from tractors to airplanes, this lift-the-flap board book shows drivable machines at work. The format is simple. The verso of each layout shows a large picture of the vehicle against a plain background, the engine and insides viewable beneath a flap. The recto then shows the same vehicle in action in a larger landscape, with other vehicles typically found in that environment and more flaps. The flaps themselves are more sophisticated than in many other books with manipulatives. A wide trench runs about the perimeter, making it quite easy to grab, especially helpful for little fingers. Furthermore, once the flap is folded open into place, it alters the surrounding image slightly, often conveying movement. A lifeboat rushes down into the water, for example; a bullet train whizzes by; and a plane takes off. The illustrations are incredibly detailed, inviting readers to linger. Children will be delighted by the tiny tractor engine, a miniature fish skeleton being dumped with other refuse into the back of a garbage truck, the materials inside an ambulance. The text pales beside the illustrations, oftentimes stating the obvious—“The cement pours out of the mixer”—without adding interesting factoids. People driving and interacting with these machines are diverse. The companion title, I Want To Be…, similarly explores different occupations.
The text is dull, but the dazzlingly detailed illustrations and clever flaps make up for it. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-612-1
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The lack of real excitement will make these helpers fade from memory like sirens on a distant road.
Part emergency adventure, part reassurance that help is on the way—youngsters fascinated by vehicles with sirens will be attracted to this board book.
Straightforward, declarative text and fanciful, somewhat futuristic pictures describe “a big beautiful world, filled with awesome adventures.” The second spread previews the helpers and their vehicles with profile views of six types of vehicles against a clean white background. The final spread shows front views of the same six rescue vehicles. In between, spreads focus on three different emergencies. In a busy spread headlined “Uh-oh, an accident,” readers see a police car, an ambulance, and a tow truck, while a police helicopter hovers overhead. “Uh-oh, a storm!” shows the water-based versions of emergency vehicles against a rain-gray background. “Uh-oh, a fire!” focuses on firefighters, with police and EMTs playing supporting roles. All the vehicles are staffed by smiling animal characters reminiscent of Richard Scarry’s Busytown creatures but without the whimsy of those classics. The final text proclaims that “helpers…are the ones who save the world.” The wordy text and detailed pictures make this board book most suited for older toddlers intrigued by emergency vehicles, but the placid delivery is out of sync with the notion that the depicted world is in peril.
The lack of real excitement will make these helpers fade from memory like sirens on a distant road. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0599-8
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Serviceable, reasonably toddler-friendly fare.
Denizens of the deep in diminutive 3-D displays.
Arranged in a seemingly arbitrary sequence, the 15 figures popping up, one per spread, in this small, square volume include some dolllike humans or human artifacts but are mostly very simply rendered sea animals sporting smiles and big eyes. All feature one- or two-word identifiers and hover above monochrome backgrounds enhanced, sometimes, with a simple nautical detail. The pop-ups, constructed largely from reverse folds, are designed as static compositions aside from a crab that waves its claws at viewers as the spread opens. Other than a similar but not identical boat and a subway train, the equally simple vehicles in the co-published Pop-Up Things That Go! roll on or fly over dry land. In both books, human figures are all white except for one of three firefighters and a child collecting a cone from the “ice cream van” in Things That Go! (which also places the driver of its bus on the British side).
Serviceable, reasonably toddler-friendly fare. (Pop-up picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0119-2
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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