A charming, challenging, imaginative alphabet book; will induce giggles.
A girl chases a stray pet through an animal parade in this zany collection of alphabet animals and their owners.
When brown-haired Zoe notices a sign for the pet parade, she asks her grandfather if she can get a pet. After assuring her grandfather she’s ready for the responsibility of being a pet owner, she heads to the parade. There, they see a wacky assortment of town residents and some very strange pets, one for each letter of the alphabet. But when a “critter that strayed, / out of the crowd into the parade,” starts causing a ruckus, Zoe zooms after it on her bicycle, chasing it through the alphabet until she finally rescues it and knows exactly which pet she wants for herself. Unlike alphabet books geared toward the youngest readers, this collection of alphabetical creatures and characters features fun and challenging vocabulary words (intercepted, orneriest, oscillated) to go with sometimes lesser-known animals (ibex, quoll). Savvy readers will notice that each character’s surname is the opposite of their description, giving the Santa Fe–esque Topsy-Turvy Town a unique cast (“Barbara Boring, the most interesting person you’ve ever met, brought her bats”). Engel’s exquisite illustrations offer a bright display of color and activity. The town’s quirky residents range in age, ethnicity, skin tone, and ability—two characters use wheelchairs—as well as described personality. Endnotes offer discussion questions, including about the wisdom of keeping exotic pets.
A charming, challenging, imaginative alphabet book; will induce giggles.Pub Date: July 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-58041-127-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: ASHA Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
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