Simultaneously quietly soothing yet deeply empowering—a friendship tale for the ages.
A bespectacled rat asks a panda for reassurance of their friendship.
While traveling through a landscape of different seasons and weather conditions, Rat poses a variety of questions to Bear, all centered on the constancy of their companionship, starting with whether they will still be friends when they are old. Bear’s answer is sweet and gently humorous (“I’ll even hold your tail so you don’t trip over it”). Throughout, Bear pledges loyalty in sickness and health, through crankiness and loud snoring, and even through misbehavior. Finally, Rat asks the toughest question of all: “What if I have to leave and go somewhere you can’t come?” Soft watercolor, ink, and pencil art features wispy, delicate linework that evokes motion, especially when winds blow the anthropomorphic pair’s brightly colored umbrellas (providing early, visual hints of the anxiety behind the climactic question about the two being separated by circumstances outside their control). Bear’s answer avoids being trite by acknowledging how sad separation would be and saying that they would still carry an absent Rat; Bear’s gestures are especially sweet. Although Bear and Rat are still together at the end, this book would be useful for children struggling with the idea of saying goodbye to friends as well as a comfort for sensitive readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Simultaneously quietly soothing yet deeply empowering—a friendship tale for the ages. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-56450-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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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