There's a long tradition of stories about various forms of transport running amok, from Virginia Lee Burton's Choo Choo and Hardie Gramatky's Little Toot to some of W. Awdry's stories about Thomas the Tank Engine. Now comes a somewhat unusual entry in the genre from Roberts (The Two O'Clock Secret, 1993, etc.) and Hubbell, about five uncooperative camels who abruptly abandon their desert caravan (``Hot! Dry!/Dusty! Slow!/Grump,/GRUMP,/GRUMP!''), leave their sleeping drivers in the lurch, and sneak off in search of easier ways to travel. They try a boxcar, bicycles, a bus, a boat, a truck, and an airplane before parachuting back into the desert, where their overjoyed owners welcome them affectionately. All this silliness provides just the excuse to drag in nearly every English word ending in ump—and what a satisfying, camel-y sound those words make when repeated by a chorus of young voices! It's also the perfect occasion for some inspired looniness in the cut- paper and pastel illustrations. Taylor has gotten the camels' expressions of imperturbable, supercilious hauteur exactly right, making it all the funnier when they lose it. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-13939-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
The can’t-miss subject of this Step into Reading series entry—a unicorn with a magic horn who also longs for wings—trumps its text, which is dry even by easy-reader standards. A boy unicorn, whose horn has healing powers, reveals his wish to a butterfly in a castle garden, a bluebird in the forest and a snowy white swan in a pond. Falling asleep at the edge of the sea, the unicorn is visited by a winged white mare. He heals her broken wing and she flies away. After sadly invoking his wish once more, he sees his reflection: “He had big white wings!” He flies off after the mare, because he “wanted to say, ‘Thank you.’ ” Perfectly suiting this confection, Silin-Palmer’s pictures teem with the mass market–fueled iconography of what little girls are (ostensibly) made of: rainbows, flowers, twinkly stars and, of course, manes down to there. (Easy reader. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83117-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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