Why settle for ordinary? Ride a “chicken bus” in Guatemala! (Picture book/song. 3-6)
The familiar song gets a new setting in this trip to a Guatemalan market.
The green and orange bus, roof piled high with baskets and bowls, bags and chickens, leaves the village just as the sun is coming up: “The bus starts up with a rumble and crunch. / The driver calls out, ‘We’ll be there by lunch.’ / The bus starts up with a rumble and a crunch / On the journey to the town.” The wheels go round over dusty ground, the children shout and play along the way, the papis stand up to sing and hum and bang a drum, and the babies cry bouncing low and high, until suddenly, “BANG!” A granny is there to calm the children, the mamis find a spare, and the people all lift the bus. Backmatter includes some facts about Guatemala and the first verse and music to the song. While the lines of the song do not strictly repeat, the bright illustrations may prompt repeat readings, and children will catch on to the lines that vary. Ochre and tropical shades of blue, green and yellow fill the full-bleed illustrations with color, energy and vibrant patterns, as befits the Central American setting. Happy people share the bus’s interior with polka-dot chickens, the women all wear long skirts, the men sport hats, and donkeys and goats dot the countryside.
Why settle for ordinary? Ride a “chicken bus” in Guatemala! (Picture book/song. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84686-787-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems.
Rhyming poems introduce children to anthropomorphized trucks of all sorts, as well as the jobs that they do.
Adorable multiethnic children are the drivers of these 16 trucks—from construction equipment to city trucks, rescue vehicles and a semi—easily standing in for readers, a point made very clear on the final spread. Varying rhyme schemes and poem lengths help keep readers’ attention. For the most part, the rhymes and rhythms work, as in this, from “Cement Mixer”: “No time to wait; / he can’t sit still. / He has to beg your pardon. / For if he dawdles on the way, / his slushy load will harden.” Slonim’s trucks each sport an expressive pair of eyes, but the anthropomorphism stops there, at least in the pictures—Vestergaard sometimes takes it too far, as in “Bulldozer”: “He’s not a bully, either, / although he’s big and tough. / He waits his turn, plays well with friends, / and pushes just enough.” A few trucks’ jobs get short shrift, to mixed effect: “Skid-Steer Loader” focuses on how this truck moves without the typical steering wheel, but “Semi” runs with a royalty analogy and fails to truly impart any knowledge. The acrylic-and-charcoal artwork, set against white backgrounds, keeps the focus on the trucks and the jobs they are doing.
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5078-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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