Review by Booklist Review
When is the best time for fort building? Any time, any season, as explained in this zestful picture book. After all, forts can be made of almost anything: sticks, trees, snow, quilts, pillows. In the winter, children build igloos and snowmen; in spring, it's a tablecloth over a string tied to two trees to keep off the rain. Summer? That's driftwood on a big rock in the sand. And in fall, the children climb into a treehouse complete with a basket on a rope. A diverse group of smiling children occupy each page as they engage in the fun activities of each season. Food is seasonal, too: hot cocoa, tea, hot dogs, hot soup. The busy pages show children skiing, squishing in the mud in the rain, drawing pictures and reading books, swimming, hunting for shells, writing poems, and hiking on trails. Ebullient illustrations in watercolor and colored pencils invite readers to get busy building. The delightfully detailed, colorful double-page spreads spur imagination and enthusiastically embrace fun.--Gepson, Lolly Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-This colorful tribute to the perennial childhood occupation of fort-building follows a group of children through the seasons as they use materials at hand to create cozy private spaces. Lloyd uses hyphenated adjectival participles to create a rhythmic description of each season. Winter is "snowball-throwing, scarf-wrapping, sled-pulling, ice-sliding time"-reminding readers that each time of year is a perfect "fort-building" too. Winter's garlanded igloo is replaced by a bedsheet and blanket tent in the woods. It is followed by a driftwood and beach towel lean-to that gives way to a hut covered with branches and leaves, and ends with a near-catastrophe as a pet dog "helps out." Engaging with their natural environment and with one another in the building process, children can also use creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork. Halpin's sweet, detailed watercolor-and-pencil drawings of a diverse group of friends enjoying the outdoors and working together will encourage readers to see the potential in their own environments. Linguistic and narrative parallels reinforce a sense of movement and activity and create opportunities for word work. At a time when more children look to screens for their fun, this book might remind them to look around instead. VERDICT Use in the classroom for fun project-based learning, or at home with your sheets and couch cushions. Recommended.-Lisa Lehmuller, Paul Cuffee Maritime Charter School, Providence © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Each season brings wonderful activities, including "snowball-throwing" in winter, "daffodil-hunting" in spring, "sandcastle-shaping" in summer, and "leaf-chasing" in fall. And throughout the year, it's always "fort-building time." Lush, detailed watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations finished digitally capture the allure of building forts outside in nature. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A celebration of fort-building play throughout the year.A diverse cast of children with different skin colors and hair textures builds forts with a wide variety of materials in winter, spring, summer, and fall. "WINTER is adog-snuggling, cocoa-drinking, snowman-making, fort-building time!" the book opens, and illustrations flesh out the action with said diverse characters and specific materialsin this case, an Asian boy skis past a white girl and a black girl playing near a snow fort festooned with evergreen garlands and pine cones hanging from red string. New fort-building materials are introduced with the changing seasons, and additional characters join in the play, but neither text nor illustrations ever develops a narrative. Instead, text and art simply depict the children's fort-building activities (some quite spectacular) until the final pages depart from the seasonal structure and depict children grappling with a fort that falls apart and then needs rebuilding. "Every season has its own secret-dreaming, cozy-keeping, hush-listening, fort-building time," reads the text that introduces those pages, perhaps inviting readers to dream up their own fort-building activities, no matter the season. Playful reading fun. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
