Offers some amusing moments, but mostly a pale retread of the first installment.
Flat Cat is back for more feline fun—this time at school.
Flat Cat wasn’t smooshed by a rolling pin or squeezed by a giant pile of library books. He was just born flat. He likes his unusual appearance; he can slip through the blinds in the ice cream shop for a quick cone or float around town on the breeze. When he spies his neighbor Willow waiting for the school bus, he decides to tag along. School is full of people and strange smells. Kids fold Flat Cat into a paper airplane and use him as a bathroom pass. He enjoys this “terrific tomfoolery” until he’s accidentally swept up with the trash. Later, he masquerades as Willow’s missing homework, and they both get a gold star. At show and tell, Flat Cat decides to show what he can do. He jumps in the water fountain, stands under the hand dryer…and poof! He enjoys the attention until Willow squeezes him flat. “What a gold star day.” While Oswald’s purplish illustrations are rife with giggle-worthy sight gags, the narrative feels less like a story and more like a series of unconnected events. Readers may have questions—for instance, how exactly does Flat Cat pass as a hall pass? Those who loved Flat Cat (2023) will be eager for more, but they’ll be more satisfied by the earlier book. Willow is tan-skinned; her school is diverse.
Offers some amusing moments, but mostly a pale retread of the first installment. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9780593404607
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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