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LITTLE TRACTOR WANTS TO FLY

Name: LITTLE TRACTOR WANTS TO FLY
Author: Natalie Quintart
ISBN: 9798890630308

From the Little Tractor series , Vol. 6

by Natalie Quintart ; illustrated by Philippe Goossens ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2024

Good-hearted lessons from an earnest, lovable protagonist.

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“I want to be like you, and you want to be like me!”

In this addition to the Little Tractor series, originally published in Belgium and the Netherlands, Little Tractor and his barnyard friends meet Gaston, a small one-seater airplane. Little Tractor envies Gaston’s ability to fly and do acrobatic stunts. A few days later, Little Tractor surprises his friends by strapping a wooden board to his hood—these are his wings, he explains. But when Little Tractor revs up to fly, he ends up plowing into a group of bushes. Though his friends remind him of all he can do, Little Tractor remains upset over what he can’t do—fly. As luck would have it, Gaston swoops in too low one day and gets stuck in a tree in the woods. Anton the horse pulls Gaston out of the tree, but the plane doesn’t have enough room to take off. Little Tractor comes to the rescue and takes to heart Gaston’s praise—and envy—of his pulling ability. By the time Gaston leaves, both he and Little Tractor have learned to appreciate their own special strengths. Little Tractor, illustrated in bright red, is a cheery contrast to blue-and-white Gaston. Attentive readers will notice how Little Tractor’s and Gaston’s facial features add emotion to each scene. Colorful, detailed backgrounds complete each scene and make this book a strong storytime read that will help little ones learn to value what makes them special.

Good-hearted lessons from an earnest, lovable protagonist. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: July 23, 2024

ISBN: 9798890630308

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clavis

Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE TRACTOR LEARNS HOW TO SHARE
by Natalie Quintart ; illustrated by Philippe Goossens

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)