An out-of-nowhere conclusion will confound youngsters eager for a story of farmyard fun.
Farm life will never be the same.
In this follow-up to Three Hens and a Peacock (2011), a truck passing the Tuckers’ farm accidentally drops a crate containing the titular enormous egg. Three hens—Mildred, Martha, and Mabel—investigate alongside the farm’s old hound and a peacock. None of the chickens are large enough to sit on the egg to keep it warm, so a schedule is made in which the old hound keeps the egg warm during the day and the three hens team up with the peacock to keep it warm at night. All the while, they try to imagine what could be inside. The egg finally hatches to reveal what appears to be an ostrich (though it’s never identified as such by the text). The farm doesn’t go back to normal, because, as revealed on the endpapers, the light-skinned Tuckers also had a baby. The end. Wait...what? For all the buildup of the egg, the chick gets only a few lines of attention before the book concludes and we see the animals abruptly shift focus to the Tuckers, who are admiring a bundle in a crib. Though Cole’s acrylic, oil, and colored pencil illustrations depict a cozy farm setting, the animal inhabitants making for an expressive crew, readers will be mystified by the sudden swerve and stop, so much so that keenly sensed caregivers may actually hear the squealing of brakes when the final pages are reached. It’s an odd, hindered ending to what started out as an interesting tale. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An out-of-nowhere conclusion will confound youngsters eager for a story of farmyard fun. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-68263-374-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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
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