Well-meaning but misses the mark.
The weeklong Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot is celebrated at Auntie Sanyu’s Ugandan home.
Auntie Sanyu, a Ugandan Jew, or Abayudaya, builds her sukkah in her lush garden, then invites friends and family to come and stay. Warthog arrives, politely eats, and shakes the lulav (a palm frond bound together with branches of willow and myrtle for use in the Sukkot ritual), but when he sniffs the etrog, the ceremonial citrus’ lemony scent is so appealing he cannot let it go. On the successive six days when Lion, Parrot, Camel, Giraffe, and Rhino come, each takes a turn shaking the lulav, but Warthog selfishly holds onto the etrog, to the anger and annoyance of everyone else. “They took turns with the lulav. They shook it west to east. / But Warthog grabbed the etrog! And Camel muttered, BEAST!” The rhyming cumulative tale ends amicably when Auntie Sanyu’s sole human guest, her niece, Sara, joins the group and nicely asks Warthog for the etrog. “She made him feel so sheepish, he couldn’t tell her ‘No.’ / Then Warthog SHARED the etrog, and the guests all cried, BRAVO!” Digital artwork provides a colorful shot of African ambiance with animated depictions of the animals and stylized, deeply brown-skinned women. This alternate perspective presents familiar components of the holiday and provides background on the Abayudaya in an author’s note and glossary. Unfortunately, it perpetuates stereotypes of Africa by emphasizing animals over humans; surely Auntie Sanyu has more than one relation to celebrate with?
Well-meaning but misses the mark. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5415-0966-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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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