Delightful art and charming characters can’t compensate for a flawed narrative structure.
Clarissa invites her stuffed animals to a tea party, but they respond with gruff, grumpy refusals.
The animals (Elephant, Rabbit, Pig, Monkey, Bear, and Pup) all harbor different grudges, which they share with Clarissa (a paper-white, ebony-haired tot about their size) while she brightly tries to persuade them to party. “Clarissa: Let’s get started. Who’s going to bring the chairs? / Rabbit: Not me. Nuh-uh. You left me outside. I’m still damp. / Pig: I’m losing my stuffing. BECAUSE OF YOU!” All those colons and speaker designations appear throughout what could’ve been a charming story, compromising lively dialogue and disrupting narrative flow. Sadly stilted when read aloud, this book won’t find an audience with independent readers, who will find the stuffed animals and their grievances (lost stuffing, knotted shoelaces, and soap in the eyes) just a bit too infantile. Readers of any age can relate to occasionally acting like a crankypants, and they can also find much to love in such evocative, empathetic illustrations. Acrylics give color (lemony yellows, grass greens, and mellow reds) and shape (lovely, loose linework) to vivid feelings (shown effectively as weather changes). The group reaches reconciliation as Clarissa unravels a series of misunderstandings, demonstrating how heightened emotional moments can resolve and actually bring people closer together. Unfortunately, the narrative form will keep readers from appreciating all this.
Delightful art and charming characters can’t compensate for a flawed narrative structure. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5900-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
