Families looking for additional holiday traditions may enjoy sharing this—and re-creating the activity—together.
In Elliott and Kemble’s beautifully illustrated Christmas title, designed for family reading, two elves start a new holiday tradition.
At the North Pole, Grandpa Norris Figgyworth launches the first Festival of the Elves. Every night in December, Grandpa Figgyworth leaves notes and trinkets for special elves in his life. Inspired by the festival, which helps spread magic, Grandpa Figgyworth’s grandchildren, Holly and Noel, decide to take the new tradition to a human home. The trip depletes all of their magic. But soon, as they share their kindness with a human family and the family shares the tradition with others, the elves’ magic grows! For 24 days, Holly and Noel leave different types of notes, based on the day of the week, to help the happy family celebrate. The conflict here isn’t about saving Christmas (which is never directly mentioned) but about building enough magic from kindness to get the elves home—a refreshing change from other holiday books. Kemble, who previously illustrated Enchanted Reindeer Treats (2012), offers detailed, Mary Engelbreit–like illustrations, with intricate backgrounds and a multihued cast of elves. The elves’ Victorian garb contrasts with the modern clothing of the human family. Holly Figgyworth’s voice as narrator is determinedly cheerful, with an accessible vocabulary for strong independent readers. Several notes left by the elves feature rhyming poetry, which scans well.
Families looking for additional holiday traditions may enjoy sharing this—and re-creating the activity—together.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73507-890-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Ewonderment, LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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
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