High entertainment from lowly antonyms.
Colorful canines manufactured from yarn illustrate rhymes about words with opposite meanings.
This excellent companion to Catside Up, Catside Down (2023) opens with four pages of funny verse and even funnier art: “Short dog, Long dog, Huge or tiny. // Itchy on the head, Or scratchy on the hiney.” The final illustration in that series depicts a long, lavender dog with its butt rubbing against a potted cactus, an eye closed in ecstasy. Two crescent-shaped bits of lavender yarn above the hound’s hindquarters serve as motion lines. Similar details throughout are a comical treat for the eye and the ear alike. Large, bold print set against stark white backgrounds—with a few creative exceptions—set off the knitted wonders. Granted, not all are knitted; some varieties are appropriately shaggy. In addition, one page of opposites shows the difference between knitting and purling. The text provides simple, one-word opposites, as well as a few phrases that indicate contrasting ideas—often with marvelously complementary art. The words “Dressing in a suit, / Or grooving in tie-dye” are paired with an image of one dog fixing a tie in a mirror while another sports a vibrant T-shirt and headband. The facial expressions capture both dogs’ essences: uptight and proper vs. goofy and mellow. The ending, where a knitted brown-skinned child cuddles with the pooches, ties up—or knits up—everything perfectly. Listeners and emergent readers alike will be enthralled from beginning to end.
High entertainment from lowly antonyms. (more antonyms) (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250907202
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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