A direct route through a funny, adventurous, historical romp.
It’s 1903, and the prospect of driving an automobile across the United States in under three months seems impossible.
Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson makes a $50 wager to prove otherwise. One problem? He doesn’t know how to drive. He hires Sewall Crocker, a bicycle racer, as his instructor, mechanic, and companion. Their used Winston Touring Car—which they name “the Vermont”—lacks modern accessories such as seat belts, a windshield, and a roof. There are no freeways or highways yet to connect cities, nor maps to follow. Adding to the pressure, just after the Vermont leaves California, two other automobile teams set out to beat them across the country. Mishaps plague the Vermont on its journey: The duo encounter treacherous terrain, they lack key supplies, and their belongings keep flying out of the automobile—“BOINGY-BOINGY-BOINGY.” Their spirits are buoyed when they adopt an ugly but amiable mascot, Bud the bulldog. Stalls, breakdowns, and a harrowing crash don’t temper the team’s “nothing-will-stop-me spirit,” delivering them victoriously to New York City, 63 days after their departure. Friendly digital line illustrations in sepia tones complement the old-timey feel of the text, enhanced by McAnulty’s quick-witted storytelling, which echoes an early-20th-century newsreel. Comic-style framed panels pull important moments to the foreground and break up blocks of text into manageable bites. Jackson and Crocker were white; background characters have skin tones ranging from peachy pale to medium brown.
A direct route through a funny, adventurous, historical romp. (map, timeline, fun facts, sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781665937474
Page Count: 48
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.
This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.
Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A quick but adventuresome paddle into a mysterious realm.
The ocean’s depths offer extra wonders to a child who is briefly left behind on a class trip.
In the wake of their Field Trip to the Moon (2019), a racially diverse group of students boards a submarine (yellow, but not that one) for a wordless journey to the ocean’s bottom. Donning pressure suits, the children follow their teacher past a swarm of bioluminescent squid, cluster around a black smoker, and pause at an old shipwreck before plodding back. One student, though, is too absorbed in taking pictures to catch the signal to depart and is soon alone amid ancient ruins—where a big, striped, friendly, finny creature who is more than willing to exchange selfies joins the child, but it hides away when the sub-bus swoops back into sight to pick up its stray. Though The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor (1994) carries a considerably richer informational load, in his easy-to-follow sequential panels Hare does accurately depict a spare assortment of benthic life and features, and he caps the outing with a labeled gallery of the errant student’s photos (including “Atlantis?” and “Pliosaur?”). The child is revealed at the end to be Black. Hare also adds cutaway views at the end of a diving suit and the sub. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 40% of actual size.)
A quick but adventuresome paddle into a mysterious realm. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4630-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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