Lovely illustrations enliven a sweet-spirited, holiday-oriented tale about limitless love for young children.
In Urban’s third children’s book in a series, a toy bunny worries that her human best friend’s new Christmas gift will replace her.
Very young children often use their imaginations to imbue their toys with life. In this tender tale, a cuddly toy bunny named Lola has a rich life of her own, while also being a close friend to her beloved human companion, Ella. It’s almost Christmas, and Lola is helping Ella decorate the house and is looking forward to the fun the two will have during the holidays: that is, until Ella sees a doll with “the loveliest smile...dazzling in its velvety blue dress.” After that, Ella seems to be so eager to welcome the new doll—which she hopes to receive from Father Christmas—that she won’t have any time to play with Lola. This is the latest book in Urban’s delightful series about Lola and Ella, following Hop Lola Hop (2022) and Hop Lola Hop: A Yummy Market Day Adventure (2023), and it’s the first with a holiday theme. In this book, the protagonist, convinced that the new toy will take her place in Ella’s affections, relatably looks for somewhere to belong. After an adventure that includes a rehearsal of a children’s Christmas play and an encounter with a certain jolly fellow and his flying reindeer, Lola realizes that “there [will] always be room for her by Ella’s side” and in her heart—a message that will reassure children who may be in a similar situation with the arrival of a new sibling. Watercolorist Kalla’s soft-hued full-page and vignette images, all in full color, reflect the gentle warmth of the narrative.
Lovely illustrations enliven a sweet-spirited, holiday-oriented tale about limitless love for young children.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781915641090
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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BOOK REVIEW
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