Cozier than a roaring fire and sweeter than milk and cookies, this earns its “Christmas classic” stripes with flying colors.
Even the man with the bag needs a little help getting into the Yuletide spirit.
Barnett returns with yet another Christmas title, following How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? (2023), illustrated by Jon Klassen. Prepare for some potential confusion, since the titular “first Christmas” isn’t about the first time Santa started delivering gifts, but rather the first Christmas Day he’s celebrated himself. Usually after working hard on Christmas Eve, Santa sleeps in an extra half hour and then gets right back to work. The elves and a concerned polar bear decide to take matters into their own hands, so this year they surprise Santa with breakfast in bed on Christmas morning, then plunge into other activities: trimming a Christmas tree, stringing the North Pole up with lights, baking cookies, reading stories aloud, giving Santa presents, and enjoying a feast so decadent that it would make a reformed Grinch blush. Barnett narrates with a pitch-perfect mixture of droll amusement and holiday charm: Santa initially appears to be humoring his elves, only to really get into the spirit himself. Smith’s signature illustrations rely on bright colors and shapes. This seeming simplicity is belied by each scene’s unique lighting and reflections, imbuing everything with a singular warmth. Santa is pink-skinned and rosy-cheeked; the elves vary in skin tone.
Cozier than a roaring fire and sweeter than milk and cookies, this earns its “Christmas classic” stripes with flying colors. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780593524978
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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