An imaginative mouse tale with Christmas spirit.
Watson’s festive rhyming picture book focuses on the waking hours of the mice from Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas.”
Early in the morning on Christmas Eve, a group of active rodents live in an elaborate house, which Edelson delightfully illustrates as crowded with furniture, artwork, and Christmas finery. The mice are dressed in old-fashioned clothing, and the Christmas tree is lit with real candles, befitting its 19th-century setting. They’re putting up “garlands of holly and evergreen limbs” and making gingerbread mice; the youngsters wrap presents but get tape in their fur. The abundant presents inspire clever rhymes: “gifts by the dozens, / for all the relations, for fourth and fifth cousins.” After a feast of cheese followed by dancing, Santa Mouse arrives, with hamsters pulling his sleigh. As in Moore’s poem, this Santa declares, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” Finally, the mice fall asleep, so they aren’t “stirring” later on; the final lines of the book are the opening lines of the original poem. Such references are enjoyable and make the story compelling, although it invites comparison with Moore’s original, which is the stronger work. Still, children familiar with the classic will feel as though they are in on a secret with this prequel.
An imaginative mouse tale with Christmas spirit.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62035-609-8
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Skyhook Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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