Runaway Signs

April 1, 2020
Once school's out for summer, the kids on a School Crossing sign decide to take a vacation. Leaping off to adventure, they encounter a bike sign (conveniently, an equally sentient and riderless tandem) inviting it along. The three cruise the bike path, beckoning other signs to take a break from their own jobs. In Holub's wry, pun-filled text, much of it delivered in word bubbles, many signs "[jump] at the chance." Farrell's humorous illustrations depict the black silhouettes of newly liberated, ambulatory figures (a park ranger, hikers, a bear, road workers). Entire signs, like HAIRPIN TURN and ONE WAY, sport sturdy white arms and legs. This animated throng is soon cavorting on the rides at the Adventureland amusement park. From atop the Ferris wheel the alarmed kids who started this all clearly spy the signless town's growing confusion: Cars collide on a one-way street, and summer school students are unsure about safe routes to school. In character, a certain sign takes charge. "STOP! The party's OVER!...please proceed back to your signposts." Racing back, lessons learned, the signs resolve never to leave their posts. Almost never, that is. Final pages reveal them making quick dashes to the ice cream wagon for double dip cones: It's summer, after all. This union of dialogue-rich text and panoramic representations of a diverse town provides a just-right balance between community-safety instruction and kid-appealing hijinks. Perfect for end-of-the-school-year read-alouds and good fun all year long. (Picture book. 3-8)

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April 1, 2020
Preschool-G When school lets out for summer vacation, the two silhouette figures on the yellow school-crossing sign decide that they're ready for a break too. After all, not one of those happy kids streaming across the street paused to say goodbye! Will anyone even miss the silhouettes? They invite the bicycle-built-for-two from a bike-route sign to join them. As they cycle through town, more silhouettes and whole signs join them, happily racing off and enjoying the Adventureland amusement park together. Meanwhile, cars are colliding and kids can't find the bike path or the library. The signs run back to their official places, feeling needed once again. Holub's concise, satisfying narrative and the characters' speech-balloon comments read aloud well. The story's unspoken message, that everyone likes to be appreciated for what they do, is one that young children can appreciate. Capturing the joy of an unexpected holiday, Farrell contributes a series of wonderfully childlike gouache-and-ink illustrations that become increasingly chaotic, then resolve into order as the signs return to their posts. An appealing picture book for reading aloud.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 4, 2020
The two silhouetted kids who appear on a school crossing sign take their job very seriously. Now summer’s here, and has anyone thanked them for the important job of keeping students safe? Nope. “I feel kind of underappreciated,” says one to the other. And with that, the symbols hop off the sign (“Signing off!”) and persuade all the other taken-for-granted symbols and markers—the wheelchair accessibility figure, animals from crossing signs, and many more—to leave their posts and join them at a local amusement park. But the view from the top of the Ferris wheel is alarming: without the signs, the humans are in real trouble. Farrell’s (The Hike) gouache and ink pictures portray a landscape that’s enchanted in a comically quotidian way—readers should get a kick out of watching familiar symbols scamper down the street, some of them sprouting cartoon arms and legs. Minimal narration by Holub (the Goddess Girls series) moves the story along, while dialogue balloons capture the signs’ devil-may-care attitude. Ages 4–7.

May 1, 2020

K-Gr 2-Along the streets that run by Sunnyside school, the signs are different. They might look the same as those of other towns, but these have a life of their own. Near Sunnyside, the two silhouetted children on the sign audibly tell children to "cross here" each day. But as school ends for the year, it's clear that their help has been ignored. There's no "thanks," no "goodbye" for the summer-leaving them puzzled. "I feel kind of underappreciated, don't you?" Minutes later, they decide no one would miss them and it would be a great time to take a long, much-needed vacation. With a leap off their sign, they find other town signs to join them: signs for Bike Path, Street Crossing, Animal Crossing, Dangerous Turn, Roadwork, and Detour. Town streets revealed in gouache and ink illustrations wind across the pages, turning into roads crossing country bridges, while characters from the signs stand in black silhouette in contrast to the colors of nearby Adventureland amusement park. Many jump at the chance to leave their "work" and take a ride on a ferris wheel that gives them a panoramic view of the town library, school, streets-and the posts they left. Realizing that the town was now "in a tangle," the signs all rush back to their stations. VERDICT A suggested general purchase for all libraries, this title gives young readers a detailed look at common street signs with an inventive story to highlight their importance.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX

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