Like eating at a restaurant called “Mom’s,” there are those who avoid any children’s title with the word “Littlest” in it. What a mistake that would be in this case. Brimner has written a wonderful and reassuring read-aloud, full of comfort, rhythm, and repetition. Aruego and Dewey (Weird Friends, p. 329, etc.) work their familiar magic, with waggish, big-eyed, slightly anthropomorphized animals and brilliantly patterned natural backgrounds. Big Gray (a wolf) is watching his pups, and asks Little One why he is not playing with his brothers and sisters. “Frankie said that I do not roll in a straight line,” he says. And indeed, Little One zigs and zags and rolls in a line with curves. But Big Gray says, “That is just as it should be. . . . Lines without curves come later.” Ana runs like the wind, and says Little One is a slowpoke. Little One runs like a soft breeze, but that too is as it should be—“Running like the wind comes later.” Tyler scoffs at Little One’s pounces, and Big Gray assures him that pouncing as high as the poppies is just as it should be for now. The interaction between dad and pup—Little One clambers onto his father, Big Gray places a huge claw on his son’s head, and by glance and gesture the comfort in the parent’s words become visible. In the end, Big Gray reminds Little One what the tiny acorn he’s been fidgeting with will become. Move over, Leo the Late Bloomer, it’s Little One’s turn. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-029039-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
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
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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