Honk Honk! Beep Beep!

by Daniel Kirk, Daniel Kirk (Illustrator)

Overview

Honk Honk! Beep Beep!

Father and child rise early for a trip to watch the sunrise on the mountaintop. Along the way they meet many friendly faces, some headed the same direction, and others in their own vehicles-big rigs, bulldozers and trains—with their own places to go and things to do. Nothing beats the start of a brand new day, especially when there are many vehicles to spot along the way.

With a simple, playful text and boldly colored, toy-like illustrations, Daniel Kirk captures the fun of a special drive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423180418
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	03/25/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	405,946
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Daniel Kirk (www.danielkirk.com) is the successful writer and illustrator of numerous children's books. He has illustrated such popular titles as Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo and My Truck Is Stuck! as well as his own Snow Dude. He lives with his wife, illustrator Julia Gorton, and their children in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

Same as above.

Editorial Reviews

It’s that time of night when toys come alive, so a father and son from a dollhouse hop into their jaunty red jeep and head to the windowsill to watch the sunrise. The duo (who are very much in the Playmobil vein, with spherical heads, painted-on features, and fingerless hands) has no qualms about picking up hitchhikers, and the jeep is soon overstuffed with all kinds of passengers, including two improbably spotted rabbits, a farmer and his sheep, a stranded monkey motorist, a doggie road crew finished with their shift, and a herd of puffy sheep and their shepherd. Fans of Kirk’s vehicular books with Kevin Lewis (My Truck Is Stuck!; Tugga-Tugga-Tugboat) will find this solo effort very much in keeping with its predecessors. There’s a bouncy rhyme with a nifty onomatopoetic refrain (“Road crew working up ahead./ Lights are flashing, orange and red./ Traffic slows down to a creep./ ‘We’re losing time!’/HONK HONK! BEEP BEEP!”). And of course, there’s Kirk’s magical, sculptural oil renderings, which capture all the plasticine cheer of beloved playthings. Ages 2-5. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-K—A father and child, both dolls, take a nighttime jeep ride through a human boy's bedroom. Before long, other toys—bunnies, a road-construction crew, a farmer, sheep, a monkey, and ladybugs—join the event-filled excursion. The crowded jeep rolls across the sleeping child's bed and, when it stops, the passengers look out a window at the sunrise. In the final spread, the wide-awake boy looks out the window, too. Kirk's colorful oil-on-canvas illustrations are similar in style to his artwork in Kevin Lewis's Chugga-Chugga Choo Choo (1999) and Tugga-Tugga Tugboat (2006, both Hyperion). Playful details capture the interest of young children, while the rhyming text bounces along. Listeners will want to chime in on the repetitive "Honk Honk!" and "Beep Beep!" This imaginative story makes a pleasing choice for bedtime reading and storytimes.—Lynn K. Vanca, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Richfield, OH

School Library Journal

A young boy's toys come to life for a nighttime trek across the bedroom in their jeep. As the father-and-son pair (wooden dollhouse figurines) travel, they pick up more and more passengers: two rabbits who leap out in front, a road crew done for the night, a farmer and his flock of sheep and a monkey whose banana car has a flat. With all that and stopping for a passing train, will they make it in time for sunrise on the mountain? While similar to the illustrator's Tugga-Tugga Tugboat (2006) and Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo (1999), both by Kevin Lewis, the text suffers from sometimes-uneven scansion and obvious rhymes: "Wake up, sleepyhead. / Time's a-wastin'. Out of bed." And while Kirk's illustrative style is much in evidence with his rich colors and up-close views of the bedroom floor, the artwork lacks the just-right details that made the previous collaborations such a hit. Fans of the other two will likely find this title's familiarity comforting, but it just doesn't measure up. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews