For those who enjoy seeing their beasts appear and disappear (and appear)
Sometimes knitting can be monstrously adventuresome.
White goat Greta loves to knit. One day, she decides to move beyond her usual repertoire of socks and fashions one small knitted goat and then several more to keep each other company. Unfortunately, “mean Mrs. Sheep” enters and criticizes Greta’s craftsmanship. Angry, Greta stops paying attention to her knits and purls, her work grows to great lengths, and what should appear but a wolf who scares off the goats. He then “gobbles up Mrs. Sheep, wool and all,” and frightens Greta into a closet. Greta quickly crafts a ferocious-looking tiger who gobbles up the wolf. Not satisfied, the tiger wants some goat, too. Greta responds to this threat by creating a very big “MONSTER” who swallows up the tiger. But Greta is a smart knitter. She does not bind off her last stitch and proceeds to unravel her last creation, “riffle raffle riffle raffle whoosh.” All ends well for the gobbled-up animals, and Greta resumes her knitting—but does not pay careful attention to the green yarn on her needles. (Think toothy and crawly.) The story, told in the present tense, is well-paced and laced with onomatopoeia, and van Haeringen’s India ink, watercolor, and colored pencil illustrations are lively and amusing, especially when set against a white background. Greta keeps a smiling face even when dwarfed by her fearsome menagerie.
For those who enjoy seeing their beasts appear and disappear (and appear) . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-328-84210-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
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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