Train-loving tots may fancy this Christmas ride all year long.
Five cars of holiday fun and snowy scenery—now if only Santa can find his boot!
This delightful, non-narrative excursion unfolds—literally—in a sturdy volume that extends into a yuletide train over 4 feet long. As with Mara and Kolb’s first rail outing, All Aboard! (2017), once the concertina pages are folded out, each one is a unique car on the train, with the exterior of each lifting up to reveal the goings-on within. Die-cut windows, bright colors, holiday decor, elves, toys, penguins, pies, and Santa Claus make this a visually engaging read for those Christmas celebrants among the preschooler set. As the gingerbread engineer drives the train, Santa goes searching for his missing boot, which takes him through every car on the train. Questions and activities accompany each scene: “Can you find two snowflakes that match?” “Can you find a toy that zooms? One that spins?” Reversing the extended pages, meanwhile, reveals the snow-covered countryside past which the train is chugging, with skiers to count, snowmen to spot, hills, houses, and water. With so much to see, seek, and answer, this book has a ton of interactive appeal. The cartoonish illustrations are charming and rich in detail, and they are rendered in a lush, pleasing palette with a refreshingly brown-skinned Santa as the star.
Train-loving tots may fancy this Christmas ride all year long. (Board book. 2-6)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3295-9
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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