A meaty tale of unlikely friendship.
A child’s love soothes even the most savage heart in this revisionist version of the classic fairy tale.
On the way to Great-Grandpa’s house, Little Red (short for Redmond Jasper Jones)—attired in red overalls, shoes, and cap—frequently runs into Fred, a large gray wolf who’s positively salivating over the possibility of a juicy meal. Little Red’s delighted to see Fred (the child dubs him the “coolest, biggest, fluffiest…KITTY in the whole wild world”); Fred’s just as happy to see Little Red, but for entirely different reasons. Fred’s constantly setting traps for Little Red, which the unaware child somehow manages to sidestep at the last minute. When temperatures plummet, Fred is injured while attempting to snare Little Red, so the child takes him to Great-Grandpa’s house. There, the youngster learns Fred is not a cat; bespectacled Great-Grandpa points out that Fred is in fact…a dog. Close enough? With plentiful meals and treats and a toasty bed, Fred is unsure whether his benefactor is a friend or food, but he decides to go along with it. Belote’s snappy text mines great humor from the gulf between Little Red’s trusting attitude and Fred’s clearly nefarious intentions; youngsters will derive great satisfaction from seeing what Little Red so obviously misses. The exaggerated art is filled with hijinks; the near misses will remind many adults of the Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons. Little Red is brown-skinned; Great-Grandpa is pale-skinned.
A meaty tale of unlikely friendship. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593902431
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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