This series keeps rolling along, delivering just what fans want.
The beloved Construction Site team gives a neighborhood a restorative facelift.
This time Bulldozer, Dump Truck, and company are confronted with a job that’s not quite in their wheelhouse. Instead of demolishing and building afresh, they’re going to renovate a suburban neighborhood that’s fallen into disrepair. What to do with the “heaps of rubbish” and “junk piles everywhere”? The usual crew calls for help, and soon an array of specialists parade in: Roll Off Truck, Container Delivery Truck, Flatbed, Skid Steer, Side Loaders, Rear Loaders, Front Loaders, and Garbage Trucks. Their arrival is prefaced by their aroma (they are the Garbage Crew, after all), but still they’re “a fleet of heroes!” Our old Construction Site friends help sort the mounds of accumulated trash for recycling or composting, and the Garbage Crew hauls it away. Cooperation is the instinctive rule; everyone does their part. While the removal is underway, construction begins: The Construction Crew installs new windows and doors, plants trees, and paves streets. Some trucks are given male or female pronouns, but they don’t have external gender signifiers. The verse is still propulsive, with a few gear shifts but no stalling, and detailed illustrations by series regular Ford have an old-fashioned charm. One fascinating cross-section of a garbage truck lets readers glimpse its internal workings. Still going strong more than a decade after they made their debut, these vehicles never run out of oomph.
This series keeps rolling along, delivering just what fans want. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781797226552
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance.
A boy with wings learns to be himself and inspires others like him to soar, too.
Norman, a “perfectly normal” boy, never dreamed he might grow wings. Afraid of what his parents might say, he hides his new wings under a big, stuffy coat. Although the coat hides his wings from the world, Norman no longer finds joy in bathtime, playing at the park, swimming, or birthday parties. With the gentle encouragement of his parents, who see his sadness, Norman finds the courage to come out of hiding and soar. Percival (The Magic Looking Glass, 2017, etc.) depicts Norman with light skin and dark hair. Black-and-white illustrations show his father with dark skin and hair and his mother as white. The contrast of black-and-white illustrations with splashes of bright color complements the story’s theme. While Norman tries to be “normal,” the world and people around him look black and gray, but his coat stands out in yellow. Birds pop from the page in pink, green, and blue, emphasizing the joy and beauty of flying free. The final spread, full of bright color and multiracial children in flight, sets the mood for Norman’s realization on the last page that there is “no such thing as perfectly normal,” but he can be “perfectly Norman.”
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-785-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Still, this young boy’s imagination is a powerful force for helping him deal with life, something that should be true for...
Oliver, of first-day-of-school alligator fame, is back, imagining adventures and still struggling to find balance between introversion and extroversion.
“When Oliver found his egg…” on the playground, mint-green backgrounds signifying Oliver’s flight into fancy slowly grow larger until they take up entire spreads; Oliver’s creature, white and dinosaurlike with orange polka dots, grows larger with them. Their adventures include sharing treats, sailing the seas and going into outer space. A classmate’s yell brings him back to reality, where readers see him sitting on top of a rock. Even considering Schmid’s scribbly style, readers can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he ponders the girl and whether or not to give up his solitary play. “But when Oliver found his rock… // Oliver imagined many adventures // with all his friends!” This last is on a double gatefold that opens to show the children enjoying the creature’s slippery curves. A final wordless spread depicts all the children sitting on rocks, expressions gleeful, wondering, waiting, hopeful. The illustrations, done in pastel pencil and digital color, again make masterful use of white space and page turns, although this tale is not nearly as funny or tongue-in-cheek as Oliver and His Alligator (2013), nor is its message as clear and immediately accessible to children.
Still, this young boy’s imagination is a powerful force for helping him deal with life, something that should be true for all children but sadly isn’t. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-7573-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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