Rainy days bring all sorts of pleasures; reading this book is just one of them.
Rain, rain, don’t go away!
Anyone seeking a refreshing spin on rainy-day books will find it here. This delightful picture book is awash in treats for readers’/listeners’ ears and eyes, with bouncy, lively, rhythmic verses that make clever use of assonance and consonance, featuring, as examples of the latter, many apt, satisfying S sounds, so readers/listeners can “hear” soft, shushing sounds of raindrops pattering on various surfaces. The artwork suits the book’s message, with pages splashed with lovely, lively, textured illustrations created with paper collage, textiles, and embroidery silk. In addition, this charmer will help develop vocabulary, as rain is described in different ways, e.g., drizzling, freezing, drumming, misty, and sprinkling. The book also points out how rain affects nature—by forming puddles, mud, and streams; arousing snails and worms; watering trees and flowers; and “paint[ing] a work of art” in the sky. Grown-ups sharing this book with children will do well to encourage them to suggest other descriptive terms for rain and the natural changes it can bring about. Rainy days are shown in a variety of settings; characters, all of them children decked out in brightly hued raingear and actively engaging in numerous rainy-day activities (save for the few portrayed indoors), are racially diverse. Endpapers feature assorted vibrantly colored umbrellas. The last page includes several rain- and water-themed experiments and activities. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Rainy days bring all sorts of pleasures; reading this book is just one of them. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77278-246-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems.
Rhyming poems introduce children to anthropomorphized trucks of all sorts, as well as the jobs that they do.
Adorable multiethnic children are the drivers of these 16 trucks—from construction equipment to city trucks, rescue vehicles and a semi—easily standing in for readers, a point made very clear on the final spread. Varying rhyme schemes and poem lengths help keep readers’ attention. For the most part, the rhymes and rhythms work, as in this, from “Cement Mixer”: “No time to wait; / he can’t sit still. / He has to beg your pardon. / For if he dawdles on the way, / his slushy load will harden.” Slonim’s trucks each sport an expressive pair of eyes, but the anthropomorphism stops there, at least in the pictures—Vestergaard sometimes takes it too far, as in “Bulldozer”: “He’s not a bully, either, / although he’s big and tough. / He waits his turn, plays well with friends, / and pushes just enough.” A few trucks’ jobs get short shrift, to mixed effect: “Skid-Steer Loader” focuses on how this truck moves without the typical steering wheel, but “Semi” runs with a royalty analogy and fails to truly impart any knowledge. The acrylic-and-charcoal artwork, set against white backgrounds, keeps the focus on the trucks and the jobs they are doing.
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5078-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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