An often fun Christmas story that will likely entertain young listeners and their grandparents.
A holiday-themed picture book set at the North Pole.
Gausselin’s debut takes readers on a journey to Santa’s workshop, where some unusually warm winter weather leads the elves to take a break from making toys to play in the snow. They don’t heed Mrs. Claus’ warning to wear their coats, though, and when the weather suddenly turns cold and snowy, they must trek through a blizzard to get back to the workshop. The elves then catch colds, and Santa has no choice but to send them all off to bed. Santa tries to take over the toy-making himself, but he finds that he can’t keep up. He calls on his trusted friend and adviser, Joe, an older elf who’s a retired toy-shop supervisor. Joe suggests that Santa enlist the help of grandparents, who will know how to make toys “with hands and heart,” as is the workshop’s practice. Santa puts out a call, and grandparents from across the United States make the journey to the North Pole. Together, the team knuckles down to make sure that there will be enough toys for everyone on Christmas morning. Bright, colorful illustrations accompany the text to show Santa, the elves, and the grandparents who come to the rescue. Although the grandparents’ arrival at the North Pole is documented in the text, readers will have to supply their own explanations for how they all managed to complete such an arduous journey. This is a wordy picture book, and its length suits the story; however, as a read-aloud, it may be best for an elementary-aged audience. The illustrations are somewhat flat at times, although their many details help bring the story to life. The characters, elves and grandparents alike, also lack diversity. Overall, this is a familiar story of a nearly ruined Christmas, but its grandma-and-grandpa spin is refreshing.
An often fun Christmas story that will likely entertain young listeners and their grandparents.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477247716
Page Count: 24
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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