A charming journey rich with Chinese folktales and imagery.
A sense of longing ignites a young Chinese girl’s fantastical journey.
Lili and her family, who live in a village by the sea, have finished observing the Lantern Festival, the last day of the Lunar New Year festivities, marked by riddles, food, and, of course, lanterns. Lili is exhausted. Yet the absence of her grandmother Lăolao (perhaps deceased, though this is never explicitly stated) lingers in her mind as she falls asleep. In her dream, brought to life by charmingly textured illustrations against a blue backdrop, she walks through her backyard to a stream, where a boat (with eyes and a mouth) is waiting for her. “Can you take me to my lăolao?” Lili asks. Although the boat doesn’t know where Lăolao is, it offers to take her to the Dragon King of the East Sea. The King welcomes her but doesn’t know where Lăolao is, either. He turns into his dragon form to take her to the Jade Emperor in his Celestial Palace. The Jade Emperor demands that she solve a riddle. Lili correctly answers it and is whisked away to a village crowded with festivities, where she and Lăolao, reunited, fill their quiet moments together with new memories. This tender tale of family bonding is followed by detailed backmatter, including an author’s note in which Zhang describes her relationship with her own grandmother, now deceased.
A charming journey rich with Chinese folktales and imagery. (descriptions of the Lantern Festival, information on Chinese mythological figures and symbols, craft activity) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780063217652
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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