Lessons of patience, compassion, and sharing, delivered gently.
Stillwater, the wise panda from Muth’s Zen picture books is back.
Brother and sister Leo and Molly and their cat, Moss, have moved to a new neighborhood and find that their neighbor is a giant panda named Stillwater. Readers of Muth’s earlier books will be familiar with Stillwater’s serene grace as he delivers messages of life’s essence to young friends. In this book, filled with light-infused watercolors of uplifting hues, Stillwater teaches Molly, a dancer, the value of patience with his story of Banzo’s sword. The Zen story is encapsulated within the bigger story, set off by brushed-ink illustrations and ivory paper. When Leo visits Stillwater, wishing to play good-guy–bad-guy robots with him, Stillwater shows rather than tells what a bad guy is (by hogging all the cookies)—a graceful reminder to readers that no one is immune to selfishness. One day they all ride their bikes to the beach (the rather loose connection to the dancer-and-robot storyline is that they are all friends and do things together), where they discover starfish stranded as the tide goes out. As they begin to throw the seemingly endless starfish back into the water, they are rewarded at the end of the day by a beach empty of starfish and a sky filled with stars.
Lessons of patience, compassion, and sharing, delivered gently. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-16669-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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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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