by Alice Schertle & illustrated by Chris Jobling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2003
A skeleton, not feeling content in his bare bones, sets out to find some clothes. Bones enters the house of a young boy, climbs the stairs to his room, rifles through his closet, and puts together an outfit from head to toe complete with bear-shaped bedroom slippers. Satisfied and with a thumbs-up farewell, Bones moves on to the next abode. Told in a humorous upbeat rhyme, the boy’s nighttime fears are tempered by the clothing needs of his bizarre nightmare character. Mixed-media cartoon-style art gives the boy a Dennis-the-Menace look and the skeleton an alien quality, his large, bulging, green eyes offset by the beige tones of his skeletal form. Background colors of midnight blues and contrasting greens round out the nocturnal bedroom scenes. Offbeat bedtime comforter. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-688-17738-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
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by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph
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by Claire Freedman and illustrated by Simon Mendez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009
A group of farm animals is drawn together by an unusually bright star shining over a stable in their neighborhood in this sentimental Nativity story. The narrative focuses on a gray kitten who is tenderly cared for by his mother in their home in a barn. They follow the other animals to the stable under the star, and as a group they enter and stand before the straw-filled manger in the final spread. The kitten describes his great happiness at this special baby, but unfortunately the baby is not shown in the illustration, which may leave readers confused and dissatisfied. Though Mendez’s large-format illustrations are appealing and the simple story is accessible to preschoolers, the ending demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the needs of this age group, who need to see to believe. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-545-10486-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
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by Claire Freedman ; illustrated by Alison Friend
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by Claire Freedman ; illustrated by Claudia Ranucci
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by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
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