This funny friendship fable hits the spot.
Bear and Weasel learn a powerful lesson in sharing.
Walking through the woods, Bear finds three mushrooms, which she brings home for dinner. Weasel cooks them to perfection, with salt and pepper and “a little parsley.” At the table, Bear takes two mushrooms for herself and gives one to Weasel. “That’s fair,” she says. “I’m big. I need to eat a lot.” Weasel disagrees; he’s small and is still growing. This small spat, well, mushrooms into a full-blown fight. Bear points out that she found the mushrooms, and Weasel counters that he cooked them, and to perfection. But it was Bear’s recipe, and she likes mushrooms more than Weasel, who is so hungry his stomach is grumbling. Bear says that her stomach is grumbling, too. But Weasel said it first. And Bear said that she wanted the extra mushroom first. Finally, Weasel declares that they aren’t friends anymore. He stabs the third mushroom with a fork, lifts it over his head, and…a fox snatches it right off the fork and eats it. There’s a moment of mutual shock and anger at the fox, but then Bear and Weasel sit down and wish each other “bon appetit.” For dessert…three juicy strawberries. Mühle’s storytelling has a fine sense of comic pacing, and his cartoons are simple but effective, uncluttered and full of white space, creating cozy domesticity in the forest.
This funny friendship fable hits the spot. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-776572-39-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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