The circumstances are fraught with trepidation as a few citizens of the forest, at opposite ends of the food chain, meet one another in the dark of the night. Readers meet Mole and Mouse, two chums who share a snug abode, and Bear, who fully fills his BIG GIANT den with BEASTLY growls and jowls, not to mention an outsized hunger. For inexplicable reasons, Mouse and Mole venture into the night: “The two teensy friends / Left their wee tiny house. / ‘I’m scared of the dark,’ / Mole whispered to Mouse.” But stalwart Mouse urges them on: “Through sharp thistle thorns, / Into marsh misty woods.” Meanwhile, Bear is gnashing about his abode, working up a voluminous hunger. “I want something to eat / And I want it now,” he growls, a full-frontal head-shot filling the page, blowing readers back. He charges out into the night and it looks as though Mouse and Mole will soon be victims of the wrong place at the wrong time. They hear some commotion: “Mole shivered. Mouse shook. / Their fur stood up straight. / The SOMETHING was Bear, / Who grumbled . . . ‘You’re late!’ ” Hand in hand, they skip back to Bear’s lair for a feast. A very encouraging story in praise of unlikely friendships, told with poetic economy and a nod to the fact that such liaisons are ruefully rare. Bates’s (Do Like a Duck Does, 2002, etc.) watercolors, with their touches of waxy tactility, move with surety and character between tension and sweet resolution. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-202318-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
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
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
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