An uplifting tale of birds and bravery.
Birds inspire a girl to make new friends.
When two children move in next door, Amelia doesn’t go over to play despite being “a bit lonely.” Because of an unspecified condition that requires her to use a manual wheelchair, she’s afraid she can’t play “like she used to.” One day, a bird snatches a ribbon from her treasure box to pad its nest. Amelia names its chicks Penelope and Osiris and learns the birds are redstarts; their migration takes them “past the Appalachian Mountains, across the Gulf of Mexico to the Greater Antilles, over the Mayan ruins in the Yucatán to the mangrove forests in Venezuela.” Amelia watches the chicks learn to fly. “If they can do it,” she thinks, “perhaps so can I?” When the birds depart, Amelia makes her own brave journey. As she swings, plays in a wheelchair-accessible treehouse, and makes snow angels in a season-shifting montage interspersed with the redstarts’ flight, she joyfully “soar[s] high in the sky just like the birds” with “her new friends, Peter and Maggie.” Budisan’s delicate but vivid pencil-and-watercolor illustrations subtly convey Amelia’s emotions and lend a dreamlike feel to the redstarts’ rhythmically described migration, quietly enhancing Nastro’s simple, gently encouraging text. Fledgling ornithologists will particularly appreciate the notebook-style bird facts scattered across the endpapers. Maggie appears tan-skinned, while Peter is lighter-skinned. Amelia presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An uplifting tale of birds and bravery. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2785-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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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