Good friends and a how-to-manual on knitting warm hearts.
Scandinavians have a strong tradition of knitwear, and here is the why and how.
Lisa, a lynx, and Nils, a bear, have been waiting a very long time for the arrival of their friend Otto, a lemur. He has come from southern climes and is extremely excited because now he can paint the northern lights. Unfortunately, it is so cold that Otto can barely hold his paintbrush. Lisa and Nils quickly put him in their sauna and feed him blueberry soup, but it does not warm him. The two then remember their library of two volumes. Fortunately, one of the titles is a knitting book—but Lisa has forgotten how to read. Happily, the book is illustrated, and Lisa and Nils carefully follow the instructions for combing their fur, spinning the wool, dying it, and fashioning a most attractive sweater. Delightfully, it keeps Otto warm, and he can complete his canvas. He returns home to hang the sweater on a wall in his studio filled with Matisse-y artwork. The three are besties in spite of their slight disagreements, and their back-and-forth banter is entertaining. The illustrations, digitized graphite pencil and acrylic paint, are colorful and portray a lovely vista of a remote Scandinavia. They also depict the steps to the creation of the sweater with charming detail.
Good friends and a how-to-manual on knitting warm hearts. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-776572-41-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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
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
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