Whimsical, light, and soothing, like a pretty good dream that Night Bear would surely never eat.
A bear who dines nightly on children’s nightmares can’t stomach a particularly pleasant dream.
Every night the Night Bear comes into town on a bus and eats the bad dreams of children who are deep in sleep. The monsters and spiders and scary storms that torment kids’ thoughts are delectable to Night Bear. “Scary pirates being mean taste like strawberries and cream.” But one night, when the Night Bear unwraps a less-nightmarish meal—unicorns and rainbows—he sets off to find someone who might want this disgusting stuff. Tom, a boy who’s still up, is happy to exchange his spider and snake for the unicorns, and Night Bear goes back to his bear friends with the story of his first encounter with a fur-less human child. The frightening meals are approachably toothless as written and illustrated by the de Moraes, and Night Bear is wide-eyed and cuddly, with a big heart-shaped belly. In its curved corners and moonlit scenes, the artwork couldn’t be more inviting, and Night Bear’s choice of meals is obviously a much-needed public service, as any child would agree. The front endpapers offer detailed origami instructions to make a takeout box for Night Bear, while the rear endpapers depict a bevy of tasty nightmares. Tom presents white.
Whimsical, light, and soothing, like a pretty good dream that Night Bear would surely never eat. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5415-5509-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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