Though the text is a little wordy, the appealing illustrations, simple plot and warm, family-centered emotional tone make...
A pair of mouse siblings, Pip and Squeak, work together to build a snowman in this sweet but slight holiday offering, first published in Switzerland.
Pip and his sister build a large, traditional snowman near their house and then decide the snowman might be lonely or might catch cold (get it?) outside on a hill all alone. The little mice fetch their sturdy sleigh and surreptitiously haul the snowman into the house, hiding him behind the tree. Daddy and Mommy Mouse intervene and reinstall the snowman outside the house, looking in the window, where he inspires an outdoor Christmas Eve celebration that draws in the whole neighborhood. Soft-focus watercolor-and-pencil illustrations show the cozy anthropomorphic world of the mouse family, with patchwork armchairs and a candle-lit Christmas tree. The mice wear charming clothing, especially the little ones dressed in warm coats, mittens and snow boots. One illustration fails to match the text, which specifically mentions the children’s present for their parents: a cat-shaped nutcracker. Observant children will search among the gifts shown in that spread for the nutcracker, which is nowhere to be seen.
Though the text is a little wordy, the appealing illustrations, simple plot and warm, family-centered emotional tone make this a suitable though not essential choice for holiday story time. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4045-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Superheroes, and readers, will live happily-ever-after.
Why have fairy tales lasted so long? Maybe it’s because they change with every teller.
It takes surprisingly little effort to turn the Three Little Pigs into superheroes. The Big Bad Wolf basically started out as a supervillain, with the ability to blow a house down, and the pigs had to perform spectacular feats to outwit him. In this picture book, the wolf, locked in the Happily Never After tower, devises a plot to escape. Using rotten eggs and spicy ginger, he creates the Gingerbread Man, who makes his way to a baking contest where the three pigs and other fairy-tale characters are competing to win the key to the city. The Gingerbread Man grabs the key, and not even superhero pigs are fast enough to catch him, but with their secret weapon—mustard (which one of the pigs also uses to bake cookies)—they save the day. The morals: Evil never triumphs, and mustard cookies are delicious. The book’s charm is in the details. There are splotches of mustard on the cookies featured on the endpapers, and a sly-looking mouse is hiding on many of the pages. The story even manages to include more than a dozen fairy-tale figures without seeming frenzied. Evans’ use of shading is so skillful that it almost seems possible to reach out and touch the characters. Most of the human characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Superheroes, and readers, will live happily-ever-after. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-68221-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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