One of the cutest tadpole-to-frog stories ever. (Picture book. 4-8)
A tiny tadpole finally finds her frog legs.
Tad, depicted as an earnest yellow eye attached to a wiggly black tail, is “the smallest almost-a-frog in the whole wide pond.” She wriggles “twice as fast just to keep up” with her endearing tadsiblings, all of them bursting with expression even though they are all pretty much simple egg-shaped eyes with tails. But “she [is] strong and she [is] clever,” and she counts on these skills to keep her safe from Big Blub, a creepy greenish fish who’s reputed to feed on little tadpoles. “Tad [has] never seen Big Blub” and “decide[s] not to believe” in him, her smug smile turning anxious as she finds hiding spots, “just in case.” The tadpoles grow legs and lose their tails, and they positively thrum with youthful energy as they rejoice in their new bodies—“All except for Tad,” who stays bean-shaped and be-tailed. The number of Tad’s tadbrothers and tadsisters starts to dwindle, slowly and ominously, until she’s left all alone. The slow suspense, tapping into young children’s fear of abandonment, builds masterfully with joyous payoff in a final, vibrant spread after Tad skedaddles away from Big Blub in a riotous burst of limbs. Davies’ mostly muted palette is dominated by teal and algae green, enlivened with the tadpoles’ bright yellow, orange, blue, and purple eyes.
One of the cutest tadpole-to-frog stories ever. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-256359-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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