Despite the sound effect, an unexceptionable addition to the fleets of like fare for diapered diggers.
With an electronic rattle and roar, heavy machines dig and dump, haul and lift as an apartment building goes up.
Depicted in photographic images digitally buffed to a plastic sheen, a massive excavator, dump and cement trucks, heavy-duty forklifts, and other bright-yellow behemoths dominate each sturdy double-page spread. In peculiar contrast, the workers, who are of both sexes and show slight but perceptible differences in skin tone, are tiny, stylized toylike figures. Along with identifying their roles in the project, these workers bustle about the site making comments (“Look out everyone! This is a really big hole”)—and announcing that they’re off for coffee or lunch breaks. Readers accustomed to the conventions of comic strips will be puzzled to see that all of this dialogue appears to be internal, as it’s expressed in thought bubbles rather than speech balloons. Scene-expanding flaps and one gatefold add visual variety to each stage of the construction, and a chip embedded in the rear cover provides a few seconds of atmospheric engine noise with each push of a button.
Despite the sound effect, an unexceptionable addition to the fleets of like fare for diapered diggers. (Pop-up informational book. 2-4)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4654-5391-4
Page Count: 18
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
The slightly didactic message of tolerance and inclusiveness is made palatable by the gardening analogy, and this book will...
This attractive picture book for the very young from accomplished illustrator and debut author Gillingham explores a thoughtful analogy between gardening and friendship.
The parallels between growing things and making new friends are illustrated with simple instructions, matched with Gillingham’s pastel-shaded woodcut-and-collaged illustrations. Just like seeds and plants, friendships need to be sown, tended and cultivated. “A friend needs water… / warm sunshine… // and space to bloom.” It is a two-way process: “To grow a friend, talk / and listen”; “Good friends stand by each other in rain / or shine.” With friendships, as with flowers, things can go wrong: “Sometimes a friend bugs you.” (Bugs literally buzz around their heads on a page where the friends are wrestling for control of a potted plant.) But “[t]o grow a friend, / chase the bugs away together!” The girl finds a solution to their argument by giving the boy a ride in a wheelbarrow. A subtly diverse selection of kids and adults are portrayed enjoying one another’s company and working together to cultivate their gardens. Children, flowers, birds, trees and seasons are skillfully illustrated using multicolored patterns and shapes that will have considerable visual appeal for preschoolers.
The slightly didactic message of tolerance and inclusiveness is made palatable by the gardening analogy, and this book will encourage young friendships to bloom. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37669-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name.
A brief rhyming board book for toddlers.
Spurr's earlier board books (In the Garden and At the Beach, both 2012; In the Woods, 2013) featured an adventuresome little boy. Her new slice-of-life story stars an equally joyful little girl who takes pleasure in flying a new kite while not venturing far off the walkway. Oliphant's expressive and light-filled watercolors clearly depict the child's emotions—eager excitement on the way to the park, delight at the kite's flight in the wind, shock when the kite breaks free, dejection, and finally relief and amazement. The rhymes work, though uneven syllable counts in some stanzas interrupt the smooth flow of the verse. The illustrations depict the child with her mass of windblown curls, brown skin, and pronounced facial features as African-American. Her guardian (presumably her mother) is also brown-skinned. It is refreshing to see an African-American family settled comfortably in a suburban setting with single-family homes and a park where the family dog does not need to be leashed.
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56145-854-7
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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