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THE MOUSE'S APPLES

Fun wordplay balances heavy-handed moralizing.

Mouse teaches a lesson to “the naughty bear who doesn’t share.”

While her “tummy roll[s] and rumble[s],” Mouse “scamper[s] down the hill” to forage and is lucky enough to find four delicious apples. Just as Mouse is about to take her first bite, the bear that attentive readers will have seen lurking in previous illustrations looms large. “ ‘Apples,’ boomed the bear, / ‘are my favorite tasty treat. / And I’ve been here all winter / without anything to eat.’ ” (Since apples generally ripen in summer and fall, Bear’s—or Stickley’s—sense of seasons seems grievously off.) When Mouse offers to share the apples, Bear refuses and instead threatens to eat Mouse. Instead of just yielding the apples, Mouse devises a clever plan to trick Bear, and a double-page spread divided into three horizontal panels illustrates Bear’s long journey home while Mouse is secretly getting “fat and happy” on the apples. An astonished, angry Bear soon discovers the trick, but when Mouse offers the last apple to him, Bear abruptly and unrealistically realizes how good it feels to share, and the two become friends. Alliteration (“red and rosy”; “green and gleaming”) and the potential for dramatic voices for Mouse and Bear make the book fun to read aloud, though the rhythm has a few rough spots. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 35.6 % of actual size.)

Fun wordplay balances heavy-handed moralizing. (map) (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-72841-580-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Andersen Press USA

Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020

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LITTLE RED SLEIGH

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

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DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE SLEIGH!

A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.

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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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