Intergenerational love at its most tender and sweet.
It’s a wonderful day for Ruthie and Zayde.
Mom and Dad are helping Bubbe prepare for the Passover seder, so Ruthie is ready to help make Zayde’s first solo babysitting experience a success. Mom has provided an itemized list of activities for Zayde to keep Ruthie occupied, wear her out, and get her ready for the seder. The activities include preparing a Passover art project, shopping for the seder, having fun in the playground, searching for and discarding breadcrumbs, and more. Since Ruthie does need to be awake for the long night ahead, a nap is required. Each numbered item appears at the top of a page and is followed by colorful illustrations that joyfully enhance the text and demonstrate that while they complete every task on the list, it might not be the way Ruthie’s mother intended. Ruthie pushes Zayde in the shopping cart at the grocery store, Zayde does a handstand and whooshes down the slide at the playground, Zayde needs Ruthie to pull him out from under the sink while they’re cleaning, and Zayde is the one who has the nap while Ruthie is wide awake. At Bubbe’s house, the seder table is set, Zayde leads the seder, and diverse friends and family are on hand to make it a special night of good food, traditions, and songs. Readers will find themselves giggling with delight at the antics and wanting more of Ruthie and Zayde. The protagonists are light-skinned.
Intergenerational love at its most tender and sweet. (about Passover) (Picture book. 3-9)Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9798765619889
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
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
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