The perfect preview of New York City for early childhood readers and travelers.
The canine Charlie Wags ventures to New York City for a fun-filled, urban adventure in Wells and Barclay’s picture book.
Charlie the dog loves to travel (“How does he get around, you ask? He’s got a trick, it’s true! He gives his tail a little wag and ends up someplace new”), and in this picture book he takes in New York City’s traditional sightseeing highlights. He visits the Central Park Zoo and One World Trade Center, and checks out a Broadway show and Times Square. Charlie also views the city from atop the Empire State Building, cruises around the Statue of Liberty, and enjoys New York–style culinary pleasures (pizza and hot dogs). After a long day, Charlie heads home for relaxation and slumber following an enjoyable urban exploration. The text’s simple rhyme scheme focuses attention on rhyme and sounds, which can enhance early literacy skills. Sjöström’s illustrations—which combine the soft color palette and feel of traditional watercolors—portray both the time of day and the story’s happenings (a map at the book’s beginning highlights all of the places Charlie will visit) in a clear and aesthetically pleasing manner. The lovely images are primed to ignite wanderlust in young readers and encourage a desire for pursuing new experiences; this is especially true of Charlie’s picture wall, where he adds his photographic mementos of all the places he visits.
The perfect preview of New York City for early childhood readers and travelers.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2025
ISBN: 9798990005006
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kendam Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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