Here’s hoping more Everything Goes board books are en route.
A delightfully playful exploration of vehicles and opposites.
The usual opposite suspects are presented in one-word captions (slow/fast; up/down), but the vehicles are the true stars here. Biggs is a master at drawing quirky cars, trains, trucks and even unicycles that will appeal to wheel-obsessed youngsters and their grown-ups alike. The “Small / Big” page is a prime example of his humor, depicting a teeny compact car being overtaken by an enormous 18-wheeler bearing the words “MAXI Truck Lines.” The concepts are clearly presented, and art pops against bold backgrounds. The companion title, Everything Goes: 1 2 3 Beep Beep Beep!: A Counting Book, is equally energetic and enjoyable. One bus, two RVs, three fire trucks and more count their way up to 10. The endeavor ends on a page depicting a motley assortment of vehicles halted by a sole chicken crossing the road with accompanying text “1 BIG traffic jam!” While the oversize hardcover titles in the Everything Goes series also have strong toddler appeal, these board books have all of the enchantment of Biggs’ cartoons in a smaller, more accessible package.
Here’s hoping more Everything Goes board books are en route. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-195813-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
A perfect piece of treasure it is not, but shiver me timbers, it’s fun.
Two pirates and their parrot companion embark on adventures to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
Following Car, Car, Truck, Jeep (2018), Charman and Sharratt team up again for this swashbuckling, musical tale. The two buccaneers and their parrot spend a day at sea engaged in such maritime activities as scrubbing the deck and hoisting the sail along with quintessentially piratical chores like digging up buried treasure. At the end of the day—which culminates in a nonviolent walk across the plank—the two pirates return home. Charman’s rhyming text has a nice cadence, and thanks to the cover note to sing along to the tune of “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat,” it moves along at a nice clip. For the most part, the rhymes work neatly into the tune so that it reads easily the first time through. Sharratt’s black-outlined illustrations are boldly colored and eye-catching. The pirates themselves are not obviously gendered; one presents white and the other has light-brown skin. Most of the ocean creatures have anthropomorphized features—a mostly successful choice with the exception of the jellyfish and octopus, shown awkwardly with humanlike noses and smiles (and, oddly, eyebrows for the octopus). Overall, this one holds high appeal for little readers, and the nature of the singsong-y, rhyming text will make it a highly requested reread.
A perfect piece of treasure it is not, but shiver me timbers, it’s fun. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0319-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Short, sweet, and engaging; a sing-along introduction to furry first responders.
“The Wheels on the Bus” gets an extra syllable, a siren, a hose, and a snazzy new ladder.
This variation on the popular children’s song should hit the spot with budding truck aficionados among the diapered set. The text is a straight adaptation of “The Wheels on the Bus,” with firetruck and firefighting themes replacing the sights and sounds of a bus rider’s commute. The siren goes “Woo-woo-woo,” the lights go “Flash, flash, flash,” the riders “hold on tight,” the ladder goes “up, up, up,” and the hose, of course, goes “swish-swish-swish—now, the fire’s out.” The book won’t win awards for originality, but it should be a toddler pleaser. The colors on the cover are an explosion of reflective red foil against a bright yellow background; the interior colors are more muted but still bright and cheery. The firefighters and onlookers are anthropomorphic animals in firefighter costume or civvies, as the case may be. Characters include a racoon, some bunnies, a fox, and a woodchuck, among others, all rendered in an accessible, cartoony style. Between the bright colors and the smiling gameness of the furry firefighters, the proceedings should excite and delight most tots.
Short, sweet, and engaging; a sing-along introduction to furry first responders. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4244-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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