Calming yet unfinished.
Two friends tell stories and say goodbye.
Hazel, an older woman, and Hilda, a girl, share their lives—chores, tales, and more. In heavily sepia-tinted spreads, showers of glittery white illustrate the different stories that Hazel, clad in a pointy black hat, tells Hilda. As they sweep the steps and play piano, Hazel talks about her cat, her bird, and her youth as the “belle of the ball,” while these yarns are unraveled through white sparkles that coalesce into visions. Portraits on the wall of the ivy-covered house offer more clues. Eventually, Hazel takes to bed and then dies—a moment that is handled subtly, a story told “to the end” as a window goes from light to dark. Wiser readers will understand what is being conveyed, while younger or less experienced audiences may need that transition explained to them. The sentences aim for open-ended but too often land on vague, with ellipses carrying a bit too much weight. There are a lot of questions left: Is Hazel a witch, as the title implies, and if so, what, besides the hat, makes her one? Are Hazel and Hilda family or friends or neighbors? Will Hilda make a young friend of her own? Read aloud, this will invoke a quiet, peaceful mood but leave readers with some degree of dissatisfaction. Both characters have skin the color of the sepia pages. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Calming yet unfinished. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-54113-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
