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ENZO'S VERY SCARY HALLOWEEN

Name: ENZO'S VERY SCARY HALLOWEEN
Author: Garth Stein
ISBN: 978-0-06-238061-6

by Garth Stein ; illustrated by R.W. Alley ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2016

Though his story is a bit wordy (but well-suited to a read-aloud), few will be able to resist Enzo’s charm.

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Traffic may not daunt the race car–chasing dog, but Halloween certainly does.

It doesn’t help that Zoë gets Daddy to tell all about Halloween “the scary way.” Denny turns off the lights, puts a flashlight under his chin, and tells of ghosts and spooks running through the neighborhood. The little dog thinks, “It’s going to take all my energy to protect us from this impending invasion.” His tongue-in-cheek first-person (first-dog?) narration provides an unusual perspective on Halloween. For instance, he believes that the jack-o’-lantern Zoë and Denny carved has put an evil spell on his humans (both white), transforming them into a fairy princess and a scarecrow. But the last straw for the dog in the green dragon costume is when his barks cause everyone to run away—from him. To save them, he runs away himself. It is only when Zoë finds him and finally explains that Halloween is dress-up that Enzo loses his haunted and hangdog look, and the night ends on a loving note. Alley’s artwork uses pen and ink, pencil, watercolor, gouache, acrylics, and spilled coffee to create joyful family scenes that revolve around Halloween fun—few pages will be truly frightening for young readers, but they will understand Enzo’s fear, nonetheless, which is clear in his body language and facial expressions.

Though his story is a bit wordy (but well-suited to a read-aloud), few will be able to resist Enzo’s charm. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-238061-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)