Not just for fans of cat pictures, this is an encouraging example of wildlife rescue and release with guaranteed child...
A nature photographer fosters a wild serval kitten in Kenya.
Combining irresistible images and a narrative that’s both informative and heartwarming, Eszterhas, a wildlife photographer who was living in a tent in the Masai Mara wildlife reserve at the time, describes how she nurtured an orphaned wildcat for nearly a year, helping him develop the skills he needed to return to the wild. Readers will be drawn in by the charming cover image of the kitten, but that’s only the beginning. Every spread includes the author/illustrator’s photos, carefully selected and artfully arranged. They illustrate the actions described in the text and chronicle Moto’s growth. Each spread has a topic title and three or four paragraphs of text accessible to early readers, with a satisfying amount of information. The author describes her home in the bush camp, the incident that separated Moto from her birth mother and family, and details of her fostering: a stuffed-animal companion, bottle feeding and his first mouse, adventures outside, and his growing independence. The inclusion of maps, a table of contents, and some general facts about servals make this far more than a sweet story; it’s a model of narrative nonfiction for the elementary-age audience.
Not just for fans of cat pictures, this is an encouraging example of wildlife rescue and release with guaranteed child appeal. (Informational picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77147-242-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
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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