A friendly approach to the pleasures of multilingualism.
When a polyglot boy loses his birthday gift, his linguistic ability helps him find it in this picture book.
When his parents promise “any present” he wants for his birthday, Dylan asks for a pet. But not the usual dog or cat; Dylan wants a chicken he can speak to in Portuguese, Ukrainian, and English, the languages spoken at home. He shows Kiki to his best friend, Emma, who was born in South Africa and is bilingual in Zulu and English. But as Dylan and Emma are cloud-gazing, Kiki disappears. She’s left a trail of corn so the friends track her to an older man’s yard. Since the man is Portuguese, it’s lucky that Dylan can speak the language and get his new pet back. The author of several books for children on learning new languages, Santos helps introduce the concept of multilingualism in a kid-friendly way, with an engaging, if somewhat slight, plot. He includes examples of foreign vocabulary and unfamiliar alphabets, such as the Ukrainian "Добре" (“All right”). While translations are provided in the text, readers must use a link to a web page to find pronunciations, limiting the book's usefulness. But with some advocating an English-only America, the work encourages appreciation for world languages. In her third children’s book as illustrator, Miklós adds quirky appeal through soft tints and amusing details, such as Kiki’s flirtatious batted eyelashes and a flower behind the ear.
A friendly approach to the pleasures of multilingualism.Pub Date: April 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-952451-58-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Linguacious
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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