A charming tale that will have readers unleashing their imaginations.
Two animals form a friendship despite their differences.
Shy Henry the hedgehog prefers reading about adventures to actually going on them. He worries that his new neighbor, Chester, will think he’s dorky. But with prodding from his dad, he heads over to meet Chester. Chester’s thrilled and introduces Henry to the world of imagination, which isn’t Henry’s forte—or so he believes. When Chester introduces Henry to a fire-breathing “dragon” named Denissa, Henry’s skeptical: Denissa looks more like a lizard to Henry. But Chester’s determined. Wielding a “magic stick,” he transforms the backyard into the magical domain of Imaginaria. As they stroll through Imaginaria, they encounter strange characters and places: “the wise and powerful Smartacus” (actually, that’s a garden gnome, as Henry points out), the Candy Forest (“lollipops stuck in the ground”), and the Rainbow Plains (“chalk on the driveway”). But with Chester’s encouragement, diffident Henry eventually proves himself to be no imaginative slouch. This amusing, fast-paced tale will appeal to readers’ sense of fun. Henry and Chester are lively, endearing characters who speak via speech balloons, comics-style. Typographical wizardry, with numerous onomatopoeic words and large, capitalized words used for dramatic effect, will appeal to graphic novel fans.
A charming tale that will have readers unleashing their imaginations. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593698488
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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