Sounds of jazz, blues, the twist and the tango drift through a city’s streets as coupled cats cavort on a Saturday night. The cavalier kitties hop and hoof it across rooftops, multiplying in twos per couplet in Stutson’s poem. Cool as cucumbers, the swaying pusses raptly dance, enchanting in their indifference to the sleeping metropolis. Klassen’s muted color palette contains the warm glow of a cityscape—festive stringed lights, a brilliant marquee, lit windows sprinkled among darkened frames. His atmospheric illustrations have a Matisse-like papercut construction, and the digitally collaged artwork is lyrical with flowing compositions and lovely textural layering. As the story is about music and improvisation, the illustrator’s use of shape and texture is similarly spontaneous. The weakness is in the text’s integration with the illustrations, and it’s unclear if the author intended certain lines to be broken apart or if the design demanded it. Playful and silly, the text takes readers from two to 20 cats; quibble aside, a comely counting book. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4005-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
Turkey’s in the “kind of trouble where it’s almost Thanksgiving...and you’re the main course.” Accordingly, Turkey tries on disguise after disguise, from horse to cow to pig to sheep, at each iteration being told that he looks nothing like the animal he’s trying to mimic (which is quite true, as Harper’s quirky watercolors make crystal clear). He desperately squeezes a red rubber glove onto his head to pass as a rooster, only to overhear the farmer suggest a poultry plan B when he’s unable to turn up the turkey. Turkey’s horrified expression as he stands among the peppers and tomatoes—in November? Chalk it up to artistic license—is priceless, but his surroundings give him an idea. Good fun, but it may lead to a vegetarian table or two. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5529-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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