Readers will surely enjoy a few visits to this construction site.
Fascinated by its big machines, Sam spends his days peering into a construction site.
The young lad wonders whether he’ll ever get his hands on the steamroller and the cement truck, wondering longingly, “What if I could drive those machines?” Each time the construction workers eat lunch, the boss tasks Sam with two big responsibilities: he must stay at the gate and prevent anyone from entering the site and call the police if anyone does. During lunchtime one day, two older kids tease Sam and convince him to enter the construction site just as a suspicious car with shadowy occupants passes nearby. “All right,” says Sam. “I’ll go in, but then you must call the police.” Through a strong union of words and pictures, Veldkamp and Hoogstad construct an understated, slyly subtle narrative full of joy and charm. Once Sam enters the construction site, he sets off a string of seemingly bewildering actions. He flattens the mysterious car, pours concrete in front of the local bank, and uses the crane to lift up the police car on its way. The illustrations—figures and machinery constructed with smooth, rounded lines and brush strokes of color—contrast nicely against white backdrops. Here the book’s tall portrait orientation provides ample space for Sam’s antics, which put an end to a bank robbery. Sam, it turns out, is a hero. All the characters, robbers included, in this Dutch import are white.
Readers will surely enjoy a few visits to this construction site. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-935954-49-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lemniscaat USA
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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