Families fond of Bear won’t want to wait to read this installment.
A favorite ursine returns, this time squirmy and impatient.
Bear’s den is strewn with colorful streamers and presents. Bear himself wears a jaunty polka-dot bow tie. He is excited for a surprise, but it’s not happening until later. “He looks toward the sun, / but the day’s just begun. // But the bear / can’t / wait!” Gopher, Mouse, and Mole stop by with ingredients for a carrot cake, and everyone joins in mixing and measuring. “Raven brings a candle / and Owl brings flowers. / Bear asks, ‘Is it time?’ / But there’s still TWO hours!” Bear starts to get even more antsy. In true preschooler form, he starts to fidget and wriggle, tangling the decor around him. Then, when he rushes to be the first one to help with the cake, he trips—and the cake is squashed! All “because bear / couldn’t / wait!” Suddenly, Bear’s speedy (yet, this time, controlled) tendencies are needed as everyone puts the party together again. Impulsive tots will relate—patience is a difficult skill to grasp. Wilson’s sturdy, familiar verse steadies the story, even amid the flying frosting. Chapman’s equally familiar cute forest animals are as expressive as ever, and Bear’s postures as he struggles to wait will elicit both giggles and sympathy. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 34.8% of actual size.)
Families fond of Bear won’t want to wait to read this installment. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5975-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
