Surprising and engaging.
By lifting flaps, youngsters can transform fruit into animals.
A yellow pear lends its shape to a newly hatched chick, a banana becomes a duck’s bill, and a pineapple laid on its side becomes an armadillo’s crosshatched back. The effectively superfluous text repeats the same refrain on the left-hand side of each double-page spread: “Is it an apple? Guess what? Lift the flap....” A fully formed and easily recognizable fruit appears below the text. Across the page readers can see another image of the fruit, but this time, it is bifurcated by the flap. Under the flap, a critter is revealed, along with the answer: “It’s a monkey.” The sister title, Guess What?—Food, follows the same formula to the letter, but here, a variety of foods such as Swiss cheese, a loaf of bread and green squash turn into the critters—a giraffe, a dog and a frog respectively. In both titles, some of the transformations are more successful than others. The red apple morphs into the alarmingly red ear of an equally red-faced monkey, for instance. The final two pages of both titles review all the animals and many of the foods. Yonezu’s style, utilizing a thick, clumpy black line and bold, flat colors, is eye-catchingly simple without ever becoming boring.
Surprising and engaging. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-988-8240-61-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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
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A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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