Review by New York Times Review
Great picture books can teach kids things - sometimes things they thought they knew already 32 pp. First Second. $17.99. (Ages 2 to 6) VROOM! Written and illustrated by Barbara McClintock A girl and her racecar are at the center of this satisfying book, gorgeously illustrated as always by McClintock ("Adele & Simon"). "It was a fine evening for a drive," so our heroine zooms right out her window, bushy red hair streaming out of her helmet. She goes through mountains, a desert, a forest and a city, ending up back at her own house, where she settles in for story time with Dad (a book called "Cars," of course). The tone is marvelously matter of fact, about both the girl's feats of driving and her automotive passion. 32 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 7) HOLD HANDS Written and illustrated by Sara Varon Varon's singular visual style - bright, friendly and completely zany - and her deft, economical writing make this simple ode to holding hands burst with originality and charm. The book's goggle-eyed creatures are identifiable as rabbits, elephants, ducks and so on, but they wear clothes, ride the bus, go to play dates and day care. All the while they demonstrate the many uses of hand-holding: helping when you're scared, keeping you safe when you cross the street, showing your mom you love her. This world is funny and askew enough to grab and hold a toddler or preschooler's interest, and orderly and reassuring enough to make that same kid feel protected and cared for. WHEN SADNESS IS AT YOUR DOOR Written and illustrated by Eva Eland "Sometimes sadness arrives unexpectedly," this wise, spare book announces. Eland draws sadness as a pale blue blob, rather gentle looking, that shadows a little girl. Lots of white space on each page keeps the mood soothing and thoughtful as the girl tries to figure out what to do. Hiding it doesn't work, but she soon sees sadness as nothing to be afraid of - sadness can't help itself, and means no harm. There's lots of useful advice for sad days: going for a walk through the trees, or just sitting quietly together. Best of all, there's the calm reminder that tomorrow, "when you wake up it might be gone." 32 pp. Random Flouse. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 7) MONTY AND THE POODLES Written and illustrated by Katie Harnett As any owner of a beloved, breed-indeterminate rescue mutt knows, dogs can be a good entree into stories about inequality and prejudice. In this beguilingly written and illustrated tale, Monty is a scraggly blackand-white street creature who stumbles upon some poodles living in luxury at Poodle Mansions. Friendship ensues, against the wishes of the snooty Miss Lillabet. Monty gets a blowout and passes as a poodle, but that just feels wrong. So justice and friendship prevail: The pooches turn an old movie theater into a place where "everyone was welcome." 40 pp. Flying Eye. $17.95. (Ages 4 to 8) HOME IS A WINDOW By Stephanie Parsley Ledyard. Illustrated by Chris Sasaki. Halfway through this tribute to all that makes a place home, like "a table with something good and the people gathered there," it becomes clear that the family in its pages is moving to a new house. New definitions for home follow - "the shirt that smells like your old room" - as we see the family singing in the car, and eating takeout picnic-style at their new place. Ledyard's ("Pie Is for Sharing") words hit every right note; Sasaki's illustrations are earthy and enchanting. 32 pp. Neal Porter/Holiday House. $18.99. (Ages 4 to 8) YOU ARE HOME: AN ODE TO THE NATIONAL PARKS Written and illustrated by Evan Turk Invoking herds of elk and forests of aspen as well as a kid living in a city, Turk captures the grandness of the very idea of our national parks. With bold, freewheeling painting and equally bold, concise poetry, plus informational pages, he has made a book as majestic and inclusive as its subject. 56 pp. Atheneum. $18.99. (Ages 4 and up) LITTLE TACO TRUCK By Tanya Valentine. Illustrated by Jorge Martin. It's about time food trucks took their rightful places in the pantheon of picture-book vehicles. In this whimsically illustrated story an innocent taco truck is dismayed to find there's competition for his usual spot: a falafel truck, oblivious to her trespass! Rest assured, Valentine's story is about making space for everyone, even if it's a bit of a squeeze, and enjoying all the goodness the world has to offer. 32 pp. Schwartz & Wade. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8) HOW TO READ A BOOK By Kwame Alexander. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Alexander's lush poem captures and pays tribute to the sensual pleasures of reading: finding the right comfortable spot, opening your book "like you would a clementine," savoring the beauty and richness of its words. Sweet's colorful multilayered collages and artful lettering do justice to the message, inviting readers of all ages to linger in these lovely pages. "Don't rush through," Alexander reminds us. "Your eyes need time to taste. Your soul needs room to bloom." 32 pp. HarperCollins. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8) MARIA RUSSO is the children's books editor of the Book Review.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 23, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Meet Annie, a little girl in white pajamas and a helmet. She hops into her race car and drives out her second-floor bedroom window for an evening adventure. Her journey takes her by flat farm fields, along a curvy mountain road, through a hot desert and a cool forest, across a wide river, and into a city, where she enters a racetrack, drives fast, and leaves her competition in the dust. Arriving back home, she zooms upstairs to her bedroom, where she climbs into bed for a family read-aloud session. The simple, straightforward text immediately draws viewers into Annie's fantasy. Her journey is as real to her as her race car. Gleaming when the evening begins, it looks scuffed and mud-spattered at the end. The artwork has wit, a Sendakian sensibility, dynamic line work, and a strong structural quality. Children will enjoy the many intriguing details, from the bedroom scene where hubcaps and road signs decorate the walls to the forest picture with its backseat-rider's view of Annie, animals among the trees, and reflections in the rearview mirrors. A captivating picture book for the many young children who are fascinated by cars and driven by the need for speed.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this high-octane adventure, the hero does just as she pleases and makes it back in time for bed. One evening, Annie fits her helmet over her mass of red curls with a big smile on her face, gets into her race car-a sleek, torpedo-shaped unit that sits low to the ground-and rockets right out of her open bedroom window, the car leaving a stream of exhaust over the backyard. "It was a fine evening for a drive," the narrator continues, with delicious understatement, as Annie and her car blast across an impossibly expansive vista of plowed fields, and great mountains loom on the horizon. She hurtles on through magnificent stretches of geography-scaling peaks, sailing through red rock formations, zooming through forests and along city streets-before overtaking a surprised field of competitors on a race course and heading home. McClintock's crisp, clean landscape spreads have the precision of architectural drawings, and her economically told story offers all the greatest charms of adventure: being on one's own, seeing new places, and going really, really fast. It's a richly gratifying fantasy. Ages 4-7. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Annie, the daredevil young protagonist of this spirited story, has a big imaginationand a plan. She dons her striped racing helmet and gloves and then jumps into her sleek racing car. By the second spread, she is zooming right out of her second-floor bedroom window, a straight shot into the air, with a line of exhaust trailing her. Annies journey is epic, one that gleefully bypasses all geographical logic, where it was a fine evening for a drive proves, delightfully, to be an understatement. She drives through the flat terrain of what looks like a Midwest setting. Suddenly, shes racing up a snowy mountain, followed by a journey through a desert, a forest, and a big city, until shes on a racetrack and the first to cross the finish line; readers will be eager to turn the page and see where shes heading next. Hunched down behind the wheel, a determined grin on her face and her thick, curly red hair flyingAnnie makes an indelible impression. Details in McClintocks dynamic illustrations cement Annies love for racecars, from bedroom curtains that resemble checkered racetrack flags to the poster of a female racecar driver on her wall to her racecar-patterned comforter. Its in her bedroom where she ends her journey, snug in bed reading a book with her family. Her petite, mud-spattered, overheated racer may be parked for the moment, but theres always tomorrow, another fine day for a drive. julie Danielson September/October 2019 p.63(c) Copyright 2019. 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
The title says it all.Her auburn hair billowing behind like a second cloud of exhaust, little Annie peels out of her bedroom window in a silver bullet of a car. Helmet and gloves in place, she takes straight roads past fields of grain, twists up snow-capped mountains, zooms through deserts and woods. In the city, traffic slows her down for a second, and then she's winning races, ultimately ending safely back home in a familiar room. "Tomorrow would be another fine day for a drive." Writing with cadences plucked straight out of Sendak's playbook, McClintock never wastes a syllable. Annie's journey encapsulates "hot and dry" deserts and a "cool, damp forest." The book allows kids the exhilaration of escape, coupling speed and danger with a warm bed and cuddle after a long day. Vast panoramic vistas from on high contrast exquisitely with intimate shots like that of Annie's face in her rear-view mirror. Little details include the hubcaps that adorn Annie's bedroom wall or the bald eagle peeking out of a tree as the girl whizzes past. The book doesn't just put readers in Annie's shoes. It dares them to find shoes of their own and let their imaginations take the wheel. Annie and her family present white.Max had his wolf suit and Llama Llama his red pajamas; Annie has her racing togs. She fits right in. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
