Truck-hungry children may love this unreservedly, but it will make environmentalists and transportation reformers weep
“This is the traffic that’s moving too slow. / Cars and buses have nowhere to go. / What is the answer? I’m guessing you know.”
Anyone who guessed light rail, carpool incentives, congestion pricing, or bike lanes would be sadly mistaken. Nope: “The trucks need to build a new road!” And to the rhythm of “The House That Jack Built,” they do. “This is the SCRAPER whose sharp metal blade / forges a new path through forest and glade / to make way for the road that trucks built.” Children who have a sense of verb tense may wonder why it’s “built” instead of “build,” but sufficiently truck-inclined tots will probably overlook this and focus on the grinning road-building machines that smooth the roadbed, spread and then flatten the asphalt (“all bubbly and black”), and paint the lines. All the vehicles have headlight eyes and smiles and are presumably sentient, but a couple of hard hat–topped birds supervise. The final spread depicts the new four-lane road lined with tulips, the smiling construction trucks arrayed on either side. Although the traffic is not yet bumper-to-bumper, there are enough vehicles on it to make readers wonder how long it will be before the next “forest and glade” are destroyed. An illustrated key to the trucks concludes the book.
Truck-hungry children may love this unreservedly, but it will make environmentalists and transportation reformers weep . (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9546-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter.
A love letter to libraries.
A Black child, with hair in two puffballs tied with yellow ribbons, a blue dress with a Peter Pan collar, and black patent leather Mary Janes, helps Grandmother with the housework, then, at Grandmother’s suggestion, heads to the library. The child’s eagerness to go, with two books under an arm and one in their hand, suggests that this is a favorite destination. The books’ wordless covers emphasize their endless possibilities. The protagonist’s description of the library makes clear that they are always free to be themselves there—whether they feel happy or sad, whether they’re reading mysteries or recipes, and whether they feel “quick and smart” or “contained and cautious.” Robinson’s vibrant, carefully composed digital illustrations, with bright colors that invite readers in and textures and patterns in every image, effectively capture the protagonist’s passion for reading and appreciation for a space where they feel accepted regardless of disposition. In her author’s note, Giovanni states that she spent summers visiting her grandmother in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she went to the Carnegie Branch of the Lawson McGhee Library. She expresses gratitude for Mrs. Long, the librarian, who often traveled to the main library to get books that Giovanni could not find in their segregated branch. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-38765-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Versify/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
There’s always tomorrow.
A lyrical message of perseverance and optimism.
The text uses direct address, which the title- and final-page illustrations suggest comes from an adult voice, to offer inspiration and encouragement. The opening spreads reads, “Tonight as you sleep, a new day stirs. / Each kiss good night is a wish for tomorrow,” as the accompanying art depicts a child with black hair and light skin asleep in a bed that’s fantastically situated in a stylized landscape of buildings, overpasses, and roadways. The effect is dreamlike, in contrast with the next illustration, of a child of color walking through a field and blowing dandelion fluff at sunrise. Until the last spread, each child depicted in a range of settings is solitary. Some visual metaphors falter in terms of credibility, as in the case of a white-appearing child using a wheelchair in an Antarctic ice cave strewn with obstacles, as the text reads “you’ll explore the world, only feeling lost in your imagination.” Others are oblique in attempted connections between text and art. How does a picture of a pale-skinned, black-haired child on a bridge in the rain evoke “first moments that will dance with you”? But the image of a child with pink skin and brown hair scaling a wall as text reads “there will be injustice that will challenge you, and it will surprise you how brave you can be” is clearer.
There’s always tomorrow. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-99437-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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