A spellbinding love letter to rural America—and a reminder to look more closely at the world around us.
A rural family takes part in a nightly ritual.
As the sky darkens, the family tinkers with a rusty old car. After securing the titular couch to the car’s roof, they drive over “the gravelly roads… / up in the mountains, down by the hollow,” to a field of old abandoned vehicles. With a little love and magic, their car takes flight over the open space, where they’re bathed in the light of “a moon that is wondrous, / that will never break” and gaze at the fog, “which hugs the mountain like cozy bedsheets.” After their nightly trek is complete, they return to their humble abode filled with love. Inspired by nightly drives with her family in Appalachian Ohio, Hoefler tenderly pays tribute to an area whose inhabitants are often misunderstood or looked down upon. Using a “House That Jack Built” format, she finds beauty in things many would overlook, like “the field with the school bus surrounded by sheep.” Quotidian details mingle with the strange and surreal, with captivating results. With a shimmering, impressionistic flair, Seiferling’s digital illustrations add texture to the deep blues and blacks of the nocturnal setting. Author’s and illustrator’s notes further emphasize the importance of finding meaning in the simple and everyday. Most of the family members are tan-skinned and present East Asian; one child is darker-skinned.
A spellbinding love letter to rural America—and a reminder to look more closely at the world around us. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780823456758
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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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Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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