When the animals first start taking the measure of their circumstances on Noah’s ark, in Hooper’s (Where Do You Sleep, Little One?, p. 940) vision the food chain is a hot topic of discussion. “ ‘But who can sleep,’ the goat replied, / ‘With fox and wolf to sleep beside?’ ” Hooper’s verse is wound tight as a clock spring in these early pages, and Munsinger’s (Score One for the Sloths, p. 803, etc.) illustrations find the predators’ eyes glinting with malice. “ ‘I see in darkness,’ said the cat. / ‘Like you, I spy both wren and rat.’ ” But as the stars wink out and the wind picks up fury, it isn’t only the restless prey that the ark pitched through the storm: “The lion ceased his mighty roar / And trembled on that tilting floor. / The fearsome leopard shook with dread / Upon that rolling, rocking bed.” Then the wren offers to sing her song to soothe their troubled hearts. A mouse tells a story, knowing that it makes the night less dark. The verse is now jauntier even as upper lips stiffen. “The spider said, ‘Though I am small, / Perhaps the lowliest of all’ ” and it proceeds to spin a web of sleep. They awaken as comrades in a peaceable kingdom, stepping to a joyous circle dance, with their great project ahead and more important things on their minds than the next mouthful. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23188-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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