While construction-equipment bedtime books have become a genre in and of themselves, there’s still room for one more...
You can lead a bulldozer to bed, but you can’t make him sleep.
Seemingly acquiescent, Little Bulldozer is ready to be put down for the night by his human mom and dad. But even after a bath and tooth-brushing, sleep eludes him. In a series of actions that will be familiar to caregivers everywhere, Little Bulldozer thumps around his room, reads a book (The Little Engine that Could) too loudly to himself, and even attempts a failed stealth mission down the stairs to see what his parents are up to. Only when he slips into his older sisters’ room (a steamroller and excavator, respectively) does sleep finally overtake the restless little machine. With its tiny human parents/enormous inhuman children dynamic, the book owes more than a passing nod to Jane Yolen and Mark Teague’s How Do Dinosaurs series. But if Broach’s tale is by no means original it nevertheless remains soothing in its familiarity. Done in pencil and Adobe Photoshop art, the accompanying illustrations are sweetly humorous. They even contain the occasional oddball detail, such as background family portraits showing ancestors with old-timey car heads. Jackson’s art also plays up the inherent ridiculous logistics of an inside bulldozer’s life, such as how he would act on a spring mattress or how caterpillar treads might tiptoe. Little Bulldozer’s parents have brown skin and black hair.
While construction-equipment bedtime books have become a genre in and of themselves, there’s still room for one more good-hearted tale of antsy, agitated equipment. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-10928-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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