For young readers with a taste for the ominous.
“Brenda is a sheep,” this tale insists. In Hood’s recognizable style, cheerfully straightforward text clashes sharply with the story told through the illustrations. Brenda, after all, is clearly a wolf, with her sharp teeth and gray coat, bright-orange “nice woolly sweater” notwithstanding. She doesn’t seem to enjoy the company of sheep, either, looking frustrated at the constant “baa”-ing around her (she is almost buried in iterations of “BAA” that cover 2/3 of the page) and disgusted by grass; her preferred games are tag and archery. Tension grows as Brenda starts preparing for a feast, making a huge vat of mint sauce (readers might need an explanation that this is a common condiment for lamb dishes). But Brenda’s plans are foiled when the sheep, all now dressed similarly in orange sweaters made from their own wool, plan a banquet of their own for their beloved friend: delicacies shaped from grass. It seems that the wolf’s carnivorous instincts have been curbed, for now. The humor derives from the tension between the innocent story being read aloud and the more sinister elements left unspoken, though the text’s insistence that Brenda is a sheep might lead to some awkward and unsatisfying conversations about identity and embodiment. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.1-by-20.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 17.7% of actual size.)
For young readers with a taste for the ominous. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17380-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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