An enthusiastic holiday book for young readers that encourages moral growth and family values.
In Watson’s (Shooting Stars and Satellites at Gramma’s House, 2015, etc.) children’s book, two boys recount holidays spent with Gramma.
Ethan and Cole may forget their small, day-to-day activities, but they’ll always remember their grandmother’s holiday traditions. Immediately following a Thanksgiving meal, their family cut down a Christmas tree in the nearby apple orchard. The family decorated the tree with paper cutouts and freshly baked gingerbread men. A few days before Christmas day, Gramma baked a cake that looked and tasted better than any other cake that the family ate during the year; Ethan and Cole embellished it with sprinkles and candies, and Gramma placed a large candle in the cake’s center. On Christmas Eve, the family sang carols and read about Jesus’ birth. Afterward, Gramma led the family in a call-and-response at the table, with the cake lit, to celebrate both love and the birth of Jesus: “ ‘Whose birthday is it?’ Gramma asks. And we all answer ‘Jesus.’ ‘Who is Jesus?’ she asks. ‘A great teacher,’ we answer.” After eating, the family gave gifts that symbolized their love for one another. Watson’s book offers a realistic portrayal of an upper-middle-class family’s holiday traditions. The narrative voice of the two grandchildren is, by turns, childlike, informative, and retrospective. The book motions toward Christianity with the celebration of Jesus’ birth, but the family ultimately seems to celebrate a secularized version of Jesus as “a great teacher” of love. That said, the book may fall short of getting across its holiday feeling to a nonreligious audience. Like many children’s holiday books, this one attempts to capture the magic of the season by detailing and illustrating the particulars of merry-making. As such, it offers a good-natured, if heavy-handed, message that children should be taught love by upholding traditions.
An enthusiastic holiday book for young readers that encourages moral growth and family values.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-6202-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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