Lovely to look at but inartfully told.
Following his adoption in Madame Martine (2014), Max the dog leads his owner on another chase—this time in the Louvre.
It's another Saturday—the day Madame Martine and Max venture out of their Paris apartment to explore. When Martine's friend Louis, a guard at the Louvre, meets her at the cafe and asks her to visit him, she makes excuses for never going: “It's so crowded, and they don't allow dogs.” Louis goes off to work while Martine and Max ride the Métro, getting off at the Palais Royale stop for a new adventure. When Max spots Louis near the Louvre’s employee entrance, he scampers past and into the museum, with the two in pursuit. But their chase is short-lived, and suddenly Max is in Martine's arms. Readers primed for a lesson in art history with a dash of humor will be disappointed; Louis excitedly points out exquisite masterpieces, but Martine is decidedly uninterested, solely focused on leaving before Max is spotted. Only when Louis shows her the Mona Lisa does Martine pause to admire an artwork. The tension sputters, and the story ends on an anticlimactic note. As in Brannen's first Martine and Max story, the beautiful watercolor illustrations starring the inimitable Max are expressive and carefully rendered—but altogether different is Martine's reaction to her first experience visiting a Paris landmark.
Lovely to look at but inartfully told. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4907-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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