Read it out loud with glee.
A bright and shiny new Christmas book.
It isn’t easy to create a Yuletide tale that stands out on the crowded holiday shelf, but Wilson has done just that by riffing on lyrics from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Her illustrations are detailed and expressive, like a mashup of Marla Frazee and Vera Brosgol, with a dash of Barbara McClintock for good measure. They show the titular fog rolling in as a brown-skinned parent and a light-skinned child, who narrates, walk home, where another parent, tan-skinned, awaits. The child has made a gift for Nana and Papa, with whom the family always spends Christmas Eve. This year, however, “The weather is awful, and my parents say we can’t go.” The child’s red hat evokes Little Red Riding Hood; the family dog, Sammy, is akin to a friendly wolf. Their combined depictions foreshadow a trek to Nana and Papa’s house. With a flashlight on her head, Sammy heads out to “light the way,” followed by the child, who sees monstrous visions in the fog and runs home in fear. Later, the whole family heads out, covered in Christmas lights, and fantastic, luminescent reindeer appear. Though the grandparents’ gift is lost en route, the youngster has a story to tell upon the family’s arrival—the best gift of all. Loaded with adventure and brimming with love and joy, this is a holiday tale to be savored.
Read it out loud with glee. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780063315440
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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