May require multiple readings until the cows come home.
The many vehicles that help the farm run throughout all four seasons.
Trucks from Rinker’s previous outings roar up to the farm, ready to work. They meet Big Tractor and Pickup Truck, who show them the ropes. In spring, everyone helps to prep the fields, which involves plowing, planting, and clearing. Big Tractor and Little Tractor are the stars of that season. Summer is the time to gather hay for the livestock. Balers help roll it up. Excavator, Skid Steer, Bulldozer, and others also finally get to show off their skills during this season. The team also works together to construct a beautiful red barn—a moment that will draw comparisons to old-fashioned barn raisings. Autumn finds Combine and Augur harvesting, while winter sees Bulldozer clearing snow and Excavator moving hay. Each season has specific jobs on the farm, with nary a human in sight. The lovable, multiwheeled protagonists get up at sunrise, tend to the fields with smiles on their grills, and roll into night after a hard day’s work, proud of their contributions. Ford’s carefully composed illustrations use color to lovely effect, employing verdant hues for spring and golden yellows for summer. Truck enthusiasts will step right up for this next installment, and urban tots will glimpse a whole new world. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
May require multiple readings until the cows come home. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79721-387-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fun enough to read once but without enough substance to last.
Familiar crayon characters argue over which color is the essential Christmas color.
Green starts by saying that green is for Christmas. After all, green is for holly. But Red objects. Red is for candy canes. Green is for fir trees, Green retorts. But Red is for Santa Claus, who agrees. (Santa is depicted as a white-bearded White man.) Then White joins the fray. After spending the year being invisible, White isn’t giving up the distinction of association with Christmas. Snow, anyone? But then there’s Silver: stars and bells. And Brown: cookies and reindeer! At this point, everyone is confused. But they come together and agree that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without all of them together. Someone may get the last word, though. In Daywalt and Jeffers’ now-signature style, the crayon-written text is spare and humorous, while the crayon characters engage with each other against a bare white background, vying for attention. Dot-eyed faces and stick legs on each object turn them all into comical, if similar, personalities. But the series’ original cleverness is absent here, leaving readers with a perfunctory recitation of attributes. Fans of the crayon books may delight in another themed installment; those who aren’t already fans will likely find it lacking. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fun enough to read once but without enough substance to last. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-35338-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf