Refreshingly, an autumn book that isn’t about Halloween.
Once a year, families and farmers bring barrow-loads of squash for the zoo animals.
Popular novelist Meissner branches out into children’s picture books with this joyous paean to animals and pumpkins. We learn that pumpkins are “crunchy” and “slippery” and that they have seeds. Every page conveys the same message: The animals really like eating the pumpkins! Some rhymes are slightly strained (tummies is rhymed with yummy), and to fill out a line, the author sometimes resorts to repetition: “it’s true, it’s true”; “make way, make way!” Luckily, the exuberant illustrations carry the day. True to Pino’s usual style, the animals are cute, fluffy, and capable of behavior that their wild counterparts aren’t. An airborne hippo leaps acrobatically to grab a lobbed pumpkin, jaws agape in a hungry smile; Dumbo-esque elephants grin toothily. Most of the eating occurs against the backdrop of a zoo with very casual fencing, where zebras cavort close to tiger predators, separated only by a moat. Overindulging produces distended bellies and a peaceable kingdom, with the fiercest carnivores ignoring prey just a paw-length away. Green and brown are relieved by the bright orange on every page. Though most pumpkin-related books are typically tied to spooky season, there are no jack-o’-lanterns here—just voracious animals and the gourds they love. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Refreshingly, an autumn book that isn’t about Halloween. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781400243389
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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
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
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