Forget the message. Come for the cacophony of color and the slapstick instead.
The cadre of compassionate forest critters from A Loud Winter’s Nap (2017) returns to prove that teamwork beats going it alone.
Squirrel’s no slouch. For the last eight years she has won the Great Acorn Hunt, but this time around someone’s thrown a wrench in the works. After a rule change, the race is now a team competition, and Squirrel quickly discovers her friends Beaver, Tortoise, Rabbit, and Bird aren’t quite as adept as she at navigating treetops. Come race day, Squirrel must constantly cede her lead to help her teammates when they get stuck. It’s not entirely clear why her friends want to participate in the race at all or, for that matter, why the cutthroat competitor, after swallowing her annoyance with them throughout, has a 180-degree change of heart mere pages from the tale’s end. She’s left her friends behind and snagged the Golden Acorn by herself— but “Tired, sweaty and...lonely,” Squirrel abandons it and goes back to her friends. “From now on, Squirrel’s friends would ALWAYS come first.” This epiphany feels tacked on at best, if not outright unbelievable. Hudson’s artistic flair helps to compensate for her storytelling. Set against a rich autumnal backdrop, pumpkin pie, candied apples, and warm woolen scarves pop. Plus, it’s hard to imagine any funnier representation of a beaver squeezing through oaken knotholes than this.
Forget the message. Come for the cacophony of color and the slapstick instead. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68446-036-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Editions
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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