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ROC AND ROE'S TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Name: ROC AND ROE'S TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Author: Nick Cannon
ISBN: 978-0-545-51950-2

by Nick Cannon ; illustrated by AG Ford ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2014

For fans only

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Celebrity children decorate a Christmas tree over the course of 12 days.

“On the first day of Christmas, / Roc and Roe put on their Christmas tree / an angel with sparkly, shiny wings.” From that inauspicious start, America’s Got Talent host Cannon sets the children to decorating the tree, one day at a time, with such trinkets as singing Santas, balloons with bows, festive fairies and chugging choo-choos. As the twins decorate, their two Jack Russell terriers cavort—probably the inspiration for the tree’s “nine jumping Jacks.” The children are modeled on Cannon and Mariah Carey’s twins, Moroccan and Monroe (seen in a family photo on the front endpapers). There is no getting around the stumbling rhythms and occasionally obscure, presumably scansion-forced vocabulary; in addition to those jumping Jacks, the kids hang “three ‘pip’ photos,” a reference that may send readers unfamiliar with this Carey-ism to Google to parse (a note on the jacket flap is utterly opaque). Ford does his best to make it work. Amusingly, the two children pack the bottom boughs full, not attempting the higher ones till Day 11, when Roc teeters dangerously on, presumably, a windowsill to hang some teddy bears. Probably the book’s greatest contribution is the prominent placement of a dark-skinned angel on Day 1; this acts as a focal point for all that follows.

For fans only . (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-545-51950-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

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CHICKA CHICKA HO HO HO

From the Chicka Chicka Book series

by William Boniface ; illustrated by Julien Chung ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.

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A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.

The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9781665954761

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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YOUR BABY'S FIRST WORD WILL BE DADA

by Jimmy Fallon ; illustrated by Miguel Ordóñez ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.

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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.

A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)