Food puns may not be forgivable, but this book makes a surprisingly strong defense.
A pun is almost always dangerous.
Nearly every name in this picture book populated by breads (both raised and flat) is a play on words. Some of them will make readers feel clever. The main character is Alfie Koman, and his best friend is Challah Looyah, which will amuse anyone who loves Jewish holiday food. Classmates Naan-cy and Cornelius Tortilla provide additional overt ethnic diversity but maybe not many chuckles, and naming a charred piece of bread Burnie Toast is questionable at best. The class bully is called Loaf, which is barely a joke at all. The visual humor is more successful. The talking challah, for example, has braided hair. It seems very apt—whether it’s meant as a joke or not—that Loaf is shaped like the tablets that contain the Ten Commandments. (In the pictures, Moses and most of the Israelites are depicted as human and appear to be White.) Alfie spends most of the book trying to tell the Passover story to his classmates, but Loaf keeps interrupting. This leads to some wonderfully stupid jokes. The ruler of Egypt, Loaf says, is a giant insect named Pha-Roach, and according to him, the 10 plagues include “Birthday Clowns” and “Indoor Recess Forever.” The book turns briefly serious when Alfie finally stands up to the bully (yelling, “LET MY STORY GO!”) and tells “the REAL Passover story.” This leads to an inspiring moral about bravery and friendship, but many readers won’t mind the lesson, because it’s both genuinely moving and a relief from the puns. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 90.2% of actual size.)
Food puns may not be forgivable, but this book makes a surprisingly strong defense. (glossary) (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11811-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property.
Since a reformed Grinch is hardly any fun, this follow-up Grinches him up once more.
Those seeking more of the same, prepare to receive precisely that. Christmas is coming (again!), and the Grinch can hardly wait. He’s been patient all year, and now he can finally show the Whos down in Who-ville how much he’s changed. When the Grinch learns of a tree-decorating contest, he figures that if he wins, it’ll prove he truly has the Christmas spirit. He throws himself into the task, but when it comes time to judge the trees, the Grinch is horrified to discover that he’s received only the second-place trophy. Can Cindy-Lou Who find the words to save the day? Replicating many of the original beats and wordplay of the original, this tale feels like less a sequel and more like a vaguely rewritten variation. Meanwhile, Ruiz’s art seeks to bridge the gap between the animated Chuck Jones version of the Grinch and the one depicted in the original book. This thankless task results in a strange uncanny valley between Seuss and Jones but does allow the artist a chance to colorize everything and lend some racial diversity to the Who population (Cindy-Lou is light-skinned). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593563168
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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