No need to wait with bated breath.
Briggs delivers the fourth title in the Walt Disney Animation Studios Artist Showcase series, a musing on familiar turns of phrase.
When the narrator’s mother prompts the child to “catch your breath,” the child pauses to wonder “Where would it go?!” Narrated by a child entirely washed in yellow with straight, cropped hair, a hoodie, and pants, the book wastes no time in employing “fun sayings about breath.” These are by turns endearing (“Mom says Grandpa grumbles under his breath…. / Maybe my breath is there?”) and groan-inducing (“Oh no!— / I can’t hold my / breath underwater!” the child exclaims as the breath literally eludes outstretched fingers). Personified as a floppy, smiling red-pink entity with the consistency of a semi-inflated balloon, the breath enjoys the chase. Some jokes will require explaining: “I’ve heard I can buy babies’ breath at a nursery,” says the child to a doctor in a maternity unit. A muted palette and the sparing use of color work to softly highlight characters and dialogue (conveyed in speech bubbles). Loosely drawn black-and-white backgrounds, as well as small details such as secondary characters’ mid-20th-century-yet-undated attire, create a nostalgia that is unsurprising for Disney. However, this nostalgia combined with jokes that rely on a young child’s naiveté about wordplay may leave readers wondering who this book is really meant for.
No need to wait with bated breath. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2837-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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
Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more.
A flurry of mail addressed to Duncan’s crayons ushers in the Christmas season in this novelty spinoff of the bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) and The Day the Crayons Came Home (2015).
Actual cards and letters are tucked into envelopelike pouches pasted to the pages; these are joined in some cases by other ephemera for a package that is likely to invite sudden, intense play followed by loss and/or damage that will render the book a disappointment to reread. That’s probably OK, as in contrast to the clever story that kicked this small series off, this outing has a hastily composed feel that lacks cohesion. The first letter is addressed to Peach from Mom and includes a paper doll of the “naked” (de-wrappered) crayon along with a selection of tabbed changes of clothing that includes a top hat and tails and a bikini top and bottom. Peach’s implied gender fluidity does not mitigate the unfortunate association of peach with skin color established in the first book. The sense of narrative improvisation is cemented with an early page turn that takes the crayons from outdoors snow play to “Feeling…suddenly very Christmas-y, the crayons headed inside.” Readers can unpack a box of punch-out decorations; a recipe for gluten-free Christmas cookies that begins “go to store and buy gluten-free cookies”; a punch-out dreidel (turns out Grey is Jewish); a board game (“six-sided die” not included); and a map of Esteban (aka Pea Green) and Neon Red’s travels with Santa.
Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more. (Novelty. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51574-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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