Whether read during the day or at bedtime, this consoling story of adventure, getting lost, and sibling rescue will create...
Little Sister Rabbit has some freedom, but she’s not ready for total independence.
She sets out purposefully and without her older brother, walking through the countryside, messing around in puddles, making boats to float on the river, and skipping stones on the lake. By the time she starts doing cartwheels, she’s been gone several hours and gets “so dizzy that she didn’t know where she was.” She tries to find her home but finds other animals’ instead. She sees a group of older rabbits, one in a wheelchair, studiously playing chess. In another burrow, she meets Mr. Badger, “an old and very grand gentleman.” Her third visit is to a foxes’ den, but at least these dangerous animals are sleeping peacefully (although they are “growling in their dreams”). This last encounter is very scary. But when she really needs him, who should be calling “Little Sister Rabbit!” but Big Brother. “He reached for her paw, and told her, in a gentle and comforting kind of way, that she must be more careful.” This language is indicative of the calmly sweet character of the text. The delicately evocative illustrations, in a quiet green, brown, and gold palette, feature amusing little touches, such as the frogs who watch the young rabbit as she skims her stone. This import from Sweden via Scotland, originally published in 1987, is joined by a companion of similar vintage, Little Sister Rabbit and the Fox.
Whether read during the day or at bedtime, this consoling story of adventure, getting lost, and sibling rescue will create good feelings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78250-377-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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