While the activities and song will be valuable learning tools, the artwork leaves something to be desired, especially in a...
Berkes continues her “Over in the Meadow” habitat songs with this look at animals on a farm.
Over on the farm, a hen and her one chick peck, a nanny goat and her two kids nibble, and a cow and her three calves swish (at a bumblebee), and so the pattern continues through kittens, foals, mouse pups, owlets, turkey poults, ducklings, and piglets. The names of the animal babies are in a colored type to set them off, though the numbers are not given similar treatment; a prominent numeral appears on each spread. Berkes’ verses are as singable as ever, but the artwork just doesn’t match that of previous books in the series: Jill Dubin’s atmospheric cut-paper collages and Jeanette Canyon’s amazing polymer clay scenes. By comparison, Morrison’s pictures, which have the fuzzy-edged and indistinct look of digital illustrations, come up short, the spreads sometimes seeming cramped and some of the animals’ expressions off-putting. Backmatter separates fact from fiction, provides further information about each baby animal, describes the seasons on a farm, gives the music and hand motions for the song, and provides activities in the academic areas of math, science, language arts, art, “From Farm to Table,” and movement and music to round out the learning.
While the activities and song will be valuable learning tools, the artwork leaves something to be desired, especially in a series that has previously held such high standards. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58469-548-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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
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
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