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AND THEN COMES SUMMER

Name: AND THEN COMES SUMMER
Author: Tom Brenner
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6071-0

by Tom Brenner ; illustrated by Jaime Kim ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2017

A perennial read that radiates summer’s heady glee.

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Summer’s smells, sounds, rhythms, and rituals unspool luxuriantly in this tribute to the season when “days stretch out like a slow yawn,” when “bumblebees bumble,” and “every day is like a Saturday.”

An elementary school–age boy with light-brown skin and a shock of dark hair giddily greets summer’s markers: the final day of class, a lemonade stand, neighborhood hide-and-seek, July 4th parade and fireworks, camping and cooling off at a lake. He relishes summer’s free-wheeling ease alongside a swirling pack of friends, a group of children with delightfully ambiguous skin tones—tan, taupe, medium brown, dark brown—but all scarlet-cheeked from sunny afternoons. In gleeful acrylic illustrations, their eyes crinkle and pop with joy, their arms fly skyward, their legs extend midstride. These exuberant motions and feelings, uncomplicated but deeply understood by children, appear atop soft summer scenes in gauzy greens and cotton whites. Looking at these fantastic freeze-frames of fun, young readers see their desire to halt time during summer months fulfilled. Hearing lush phrases that capture summer’s ethos (“daylight pushes back bedtimes, and crickets crick-crick in the evening air”), they can almost smell freshly mown lawns and taste campfire s’mores.

A perennial read that radiates summer’s heady glee. (Picture book. 2-6)

Pub Date: May 9, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-7636-6071-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

- BOOK REVIEW
AND THEN COMES SCHOOL
by Tom Brenner ; illustrated by Jen Hill

- BOOK REVIEW
AND THEN COMES CHRISTMAS
by Tom Brenner ; illustrated by Jana Christy

- BOOK REVIEW
AND THEN COMES HALLOWEEN
by Tom Brenner and illustrated by Holly Meade

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S CHRISTMAS

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 2014

Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S VALENTINE
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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HOW TO CATCH SANTA CLAUS

From the How To Catch… series

by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2023

Cookie-cutter predictability.

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After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?

Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)