A delightful take on nonconformity within a lovingly supportive, musical family.
Ava needs to pick an instrument in order to join in her family’s holiday concert, a priority for her family but not for her.
Her mother plays piano, her father the violin, and her two brothers the cello and clarinet. Dismayed by her parents’ suggestions of instruments she might like (piano, flute, violin), Ava chooses the tuba, certain that no one will want her to perform. Lessons with Rodney, the friendly high school marching band tuba player, get her hooked on the shiny brass instrument. She almost gives up when the loud sounds coming from her difficult-to-play tuba yield negative reactions from her brother, classmates—even the neighbor’s dog. But Rodney encourages her to stick with it, and she happily plays in a special tuba-only holiday concert. Ava, light-skinned and freckled, belongs to an interracial family. Her red hair matches her white mother’s. Her brothers’ skin tones are closer to their brown-skinned, ponytailed father’s. The wonderfully diverse cast of characters, from Rodney, an African-American with locs, to Ava’s schoolmates and the musicians who make up the tuba band, demonstrates the book’s embrace of ensemble participation. Watercolors cheerily splash across the nicely designed pages. A variety of typefaces and perspectives lends a lively, rhythmic feel to the book. A description of real-life “tuba Christmas” concerts follows the story.
A delightful take on nonconformity within a lovingly supportive, musical family. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58536-384-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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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