The focus on friendly camaraderie and community-building will be appreciated by many adults eager to share their values, and...
A stray cat finds a cozy home, brings comfort to a lonely woman, and enhances the sense of community among a group of neighbors.
The multiply named hero of this British import is a simply drawn, rather portly calico cat. He slips in and out of the houses and lives of the people who live on Blossom Street. He enjoys (or merely tolerates) different activities in each house, eating fresh fish for breakfast, serving as an artist’s model, digging in the garden, bird-watching with a pair of binocular-wielding twins, and more. But there’s one house the cat doesn’t visit—until he does, and everything changes. Harnett’s colored-pencil artwork is reminiscent of Maira Kalman’s work, with lots of color and pattern, flattened perspectives, and a mix of double-page spreads, single-page illustrations, vignettes, and panels. The Blossom Street residents are pleasingly diverse in gender, race, and ethnicity, as revealed by skin tone, details of dress, and/or surname. Archie etc., meanwhile, appears utterly impassive and vaguely bored—i.e. totally, convincingly catlike. Dialogue balloons and sly humor enliven the deadpan text, which complements the quirky pictures perfectly.
The focus on friendly camaraderie and community-building will be appreciated by many adults eager to share their values, and this quiet tale, with the children in their lives. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-909263-37-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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