A richly illustrated, music-centric tale that emphasizes positivity, authenticity, and the power of music.
A blues-loving gorilla inspires those around him, even as he longs to get on stage himself.
Uncle Boog, a gorilla known for his signature hat and dobro guitar, always has a smile and kind word for the other animals in town. A chef at the Mushroom, a restaurant and live music venue, Uncle Boog’s love of music runs deep: “He closed both his eyes to hear each new note flow. / What pleasure not knowing where each note will go.” He soon runs into different members of the club’s band who are struggling with various problems: Cliff the horse is made fun of for playing drums; Clara the rabbit becomes discouraged while learning the banjo; and Chuck the bear doesn’t feel appreciated as a bassist. Uncle Boog offers advice to each. In turn, he’s thanked by the band and invited to play with them that evening. Jantscher’s simple aabb rhyme scheme sometimes feels forced, but it works to convey simple uplifting sentiments: like the importance of following one’s passion with or without recognition. Record’s illustrations truly shine, with color-saturated pages often dominated by one hue (deep blues and purples, sunny reds and oranges, etc.). The cartoonish images of the animals dancing and emotional use of color bolsters the reader’s ability to feel Uncle Boog’s song lyrics. This book will likely appeal to young readers who find themselves drawn to both the physical and audio world around them.
A richly illustrated, music-centric tale that emphasizes positivity, authenticity, and the power of music.Pub Date: March 1, 2023
ISBN: 9798218065706
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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