LITTLE BLUE FLAME'S BIG ADVENTURE

A tiny flame sets off on a journey in Cole’s kitchen-centered picture-book debut.

Little Blue Flame lives with his family under the stovetop. While most of his family is satisfied with staying there, Little Blue longs for adventure even though he often feels small. One morning, he sets off to explore the stovetop. When he encounters a piece of macaroni named Mac, he tries to help his new pal get unstuck—but instead, Little Blue falls from the stovetop to a dingy, dirty land under the stove. After a pep talk from an ant, who says, “even though you’re small, I bet you could figure out a way to help me get you back to the top,” Little Blue uses a string and a spoon to devise a way to get home—and help Mac in the process. Very young readers, who often feel too physically slight to accomplish their goals, will be reassured by this book’s message of using creativity to solve problems. Although no STEM-related terminology is used, the idea of using a lever as a force multiplier reinforces a basic simple-machine concept. Turner’s cheerful cartoon illustrations manage to make stove flames and kitchen waste seem like reasonable characters despite the overall suspension of disbelief required for the tale to work.

A text-heavy lesson that will resonate with preschool-age readers.