Children who enjoy searching out every last item in the I Spy series will enjoy this complex search-and-find puzzle and story combination with over 200 items to find throughout the volume. The premise involves a boy named Tommy who is sent to a magical place called Christmas City to meet his aunt Jeanne. The shiny red cover shows Tommy flying off to Christmas City in the magical yellow taxi-sleigh his aunt has hired for the journey. She is always hovering in the background, leaving rhyming notes for her nephew about the next location on his journey. Garland’s (The President and Mom’s Apple Pie, 2002, etc.) computer-generated art is the real reason for the volume, with surrealistic layers of architectural elements, characters in costumes from different periods, and dozens of letters, names, elves, and angels to locate and count. (Motivated readers will need pencil and paper to keep track of all the elements as they search.) The basic categories are explained in an initial rhyming note from Aunt Jeanne, and the final page gives more specific guidelines with a longer note in script that winds around the page like a maze. The story concludes when Tommy finally finds his aunt waiting for him (on Santa’s lap), holding a wrapped present for her nephew. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-46904-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
A charming year in the life of a most idyllic farm; horse lovers will be entranced.
Let’s go for a pony ride!
Lily, a young Black child who lives on a farm, takes readers on a tour. Meadows’ verse leads us step by step through the seasons—ponies grazing in a pasture on a warm day, Lily taking part in a pony show in autumn, and ponies hunkering down in the barn, taking refuge from the “frost and snow” of winter. The easy rhythm of the text pairs well with Cloud’s soft, pastoral vistas. While the story is delivered with a light touch, it still shows the hard work of caring for a large animal. “Soapy water in a pail. / Gentle strokes from head to tail.” “Pick the hooves / for stone and dirt / I notice when / my pony’s hurt.” Exuding familial warmth, the bright artwork lets readers follow Lily from pastures to picnics—and even, best of all, to the arrival of a newcomer: “A foal is born / New life is here.” This easy reader will speak to any child who has wished for a pony of their own and refreshingly centers a family of color—something not often seen in similar titles.
A charming year in the life of a most idyllic farm; horse lovers will be entranced. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780593483169
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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