Blue Boat - Hardcover

Kersten Hamilton is the author of over twenty-five books. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. BLUE BOAT is her fifth book for Viking. Visit her at kerstenhamilton.com.

Valeria Petrone has worked as an illustrator for publishers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and her native Italy, where she now lives. Visit her at www.valeriapetrone.com.

PreS-Gr 1—When a family's sailboat breaks down on a stormy day, a tug named Blue Boat is called to the rescue. "Missing rudder,/broken fin—/wild nor'easter/blowing in!" The smiling vessel serenely chugs across the choppy water toward a sailboat carrying adults, children, and a dog, all wide-eyed with terror. The boat's red and blue stand out brilliantly against the flat grays of the water and sky, but there is little of visual interest to those who aren't die-hard tugboat fans. The minimal, rhyming text struggles to recall Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could but is marred by a limping meter and peculiar word choices. Readers are likely to be confused by lines like "Raise the bridge,/tender crew—/rescue boats/coming through!" VERDICT Pass on this one unless you have throngs of young tugboat fanatics clamoring for new books.—Rachel Anne Mencke, St. Matthew's Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA