A wisecracking work of nonfiction that will surely be read on re-peat.
Learn fascinating facts about bogs’ functions and the many animals and plants that call them home.
Bogs, often considered swampy and unwelcoming, don’t have the greatest reputation. But this deep dive is so inviting, enlightening, and playful that readers will eagerly soak up the captivating details. Following one year in the life of a bog, it starts with summer rains being “gulped up” by grinning personified peat. While the bog filters water, varied wetland creatures “slip-slide” in. After Hevron chronicles the bustling ecosystem’s expansion, she comes full circle as rain refills the bog once again. She doesn’t miss any chances to communicate information graphically or linguistically, starting with a title page showing a conveniently labeled bog and then seamlessly alternating between single and double-page spreads and comic book–style panels. Gauzy art, made from digitally collaged acrylic, marker and pencil, is anything but murky. Color shifts signify the changing seasons, and the bogs’ inhabitants are adorably charismatic. Critters like beavers, turtles, and wood ducks are fashioned from minimalistic but evocative shapes and feature sunny, arched line faces—even flora, like pitcher plants. A similarly light touch ensures that the text never feels bogged down. It bounds along with springy alliterative phrases (“beaver kits kidded in cattails”) and speech bubbles overflowing with puns and witty one-liners (“I’m likin’ you!” says one gnome lichen to another).
A wisecracking work of nonfiction that will surely be read on re-peat. (more about bogs, author’s note, additional reading, selected sources) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781665962674
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 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
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BOOK REVIEW
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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