A celebration of book-qua-book from Burleigh (Lookin’ for Bird in the Big City, p. 582, etc.). A cheery little boy in a pompadour walks himself, an assortment of animal friends, and the reader through the book in hand, explicitly developing the metaphor of physical book as mental journey: “The way this page swings open, / then closes—like a door! / I’m heading into the next room now— / because I want some more!” Each double-page spread deconstructs the notion of page, allowing a trompe-l’oeil fold to reveal what comes before or after, or permitting characters to break through the plane entirely. (In one combination, the reader sees the head of a crocodile poking through a hole, and then, upon the turn of the page, the backside of the crocodile looking through that very same hole at the previous page.) Yaccarino’s (So Big, 2000, etc.) characteristically flat illustrations here take on some weight, occupying two and three dimensions at the same time—a perfect marriage of illustrative style to concept. Unfortunately, the concept is executed at the narrative level in verse that barely rises above doggerel, attempting to convey a fairly sophisticated conceit in language better suited to Sesame Street. In fact, the whole production is well-meaning in a very Sesame Street–esque way, failing to challenge the reader as other attempts at picture-book metaliterature do (Art Spiegelman’s Open Me . . . I’m a Dog, 1997, comes to mind). The “story,” such as it is, ends with the following statement: “Wait—the fun’s not over yet. / I’ll catch my breath—and then, / walk around to the front of the book, / and go back through again!” As a curiosity, readers may “go through” once. Again? Not likely. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-028805-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
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