This new cast of crayons will entertain readers, and admirers of the first book will be pleased to see a few familiar...
Duncan’s crayons are back in this comical sequel to The Day the Crayons Quit (2013), and this time they need to be rescued.
Maroon is broken and has been stuffed between the couch cushions, Turquoise got stuck to a sock in the dryer, and Orange and Yellow have melted together in the hot sun. Though a few crayons might have been more aptly placed in the first book—Pea Green has run away because no one likes peas or the color pea green—Daywalt and Jeffers still manage to treat readers to a new story. Mixed-media illustrations, done with crayons and photographic postcards, introduce lively new scenery and brilliant characters. Big Chunky Toddler Crayon is desperate to escape from Duncan’s baby brother; Neon Red is on a cross-country trip back to Duncan’s house after having been left behind on a family vacation; and Glow in the Dark needs rescuing from the sinister basement. Both Neon Red and Glow in the Dark are reproduced with astounding vibrancy, and readers who turn out the lights while viewing Glow in the Dark’s postcard are in for a real surprise. Fans of Jeffers will be charmed when they discover characters from his previous works hidden in the postcards’ stamps.
This new cast of crayons will entertain readers, and admirers of the first book will be pleased to see a few familiar colors. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-3991-7275-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color.
Duncan wants to draw, but instead of crayons, he finds a stack of letters listing the crayons’ demands in this humorous tale.
Red is overworked, laboring even on holidays. Gray is exhausted from coloring expansive spaces (elephants, rhinos and whales). Black wants to be considered a color-in color, and Peach? He’s naked without his wrapper! This anthropomorphized lot amicably requests workplace changes in hand-lettered writing, explaining their work stoppage to a surprised Duncan. Some are tired, others underutilized, while a few want official titles. With a little creativity and a lot of color, Duncan saves the day. Jeffers delivers energetic and playful illustrations, done in pencil, paint and crayon. The drawings are loose and lively, and with few lines, he makes his characters effectively emote. Clever spreads, such as Duncan’s “white cat in the snow” perfectly capture the crayons’ conundrum, and photographic representations of both the letters and coloring pages offer another layer of texture, lending to the tale’s overall believability.
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25537-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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