An effective and moving approach to understanding sorrow that children should understand.
A young boy who loses his treasured balloon illustrates the stages of grief in this debut picture book.
Joey has loved his yellow balloon ever since an old man at the carnival wrapped the string around his wrist. The beautifully detailed images by Madrid (Jungle Cruise, 2018, etc.) set the story in the early 20th century; day after summer day, the balloon comes with Joey on his appealingly old-fashioned adventures. At night, Joey tells the balloon: “I love you so much. I can’t wait for tomorrow.” But one day, the balloon somehow slips off his wrist, disappearing into the sky. The previously colorful images turn gray and cold to match Joey’s grief, anger, and confusion. But over time, his sadness lessens, and color gradually returns in his life. Seeing the warm yellow sun, Joey realizes that while he’ll always miss his balloon, it’s a part of him and always will be. In her book, Papageorge deftly tells a fable about grief, one that children could use to better deal with the loss of a relative or pet. The sensitive, expressive illustrations partner well with the text, especially the remarkable gatefold spread that opens up to show, when the book is turned, the yellow balloon rising impossibly high while Joey remains earthbound. The author honors a child’s feelings but also shows how they can slowly change: “As time passed,” Joey “was sad a lot of the time instead of most of the time.”
An effective and moving approach to understanding sorrow that children should understand.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9903370-0-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Minoan Moon Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires.
Little Blue Truck feels, well, blue when he delivers valentine after valentine but receives nary a one.
His bed overflowing with cards, Blue sets out to deliver a yellow card with purple polka dots and a shiny purple heart to Hen, one with a shiny fuchsia heart to Pig, a big, shiny, red heart-shaped card to Horse, and so on. With each delivery there is an exchange of Beeps from Blue and the appropriate animal sounds from his friends, Blue’s Beeps always set in blue and the animal’s vocalization in a color that matches the card it receives. But as Blue heads home, his deliveries complete, his headlight eyes are sad and his front bumper droops ever so slightly. Blue is therefore surprised (but readers may not be) when he pulls into his garage to be greeted by all his friends with a shiny blue valentine just for him. In this, Blue’s seventh outing, it’s not just the sturdy protagonist that seems to be wilting. Schertle’s verse, usually reliable, stumbles more than once; stanzas such as “But Valentine’s Day / didn’t seem much fun / when he didn’t get cards / from anyone” will cause hitches during read-alouds. The illustrations, done by Joseph in the style of original series collaborator Jill McElmurry, are pleasant enough, but his compositions often feel stiff and forced.
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-27244-1
Page Count: 20
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
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