Wondering how this exhilarating disaster can possibly fulfill Harold’s birthday wish keeps readers puzzling right up until...
A streaming parade of wild animals pours into Harold Snipperpot’s posh home, wrecking the place but ultimately delivering the birthday party the boy’s always wanted in this French import.
Harold Snipperpot’s never had a birthday party because his parents abhor parties (and hugs and kisses, for that matter), but their anemic, bespectacled son’s excruciating yearning for a real party prompts them to reach out to Mr. Ponzio, the neighborhood problem-solver. Mellow, flat gouache, oil, collage, and wax pencil illustrations describe Harold’s tweedy, polished world while also delivering delightfully expressive portraiture of the animals Mr. Ponzio sends over. Harold’s first-person narration (breathless, conversational, and authentic-sounding thanks to Gauvin’s translation) drives the story, which gains momentum with each page turn. Mr. Ponzio's carousing caravan of creatures will keep readers spellbound as they wreak havoc on the Snipperpots’ well-appointed home. Birds break Harold’s grandmother’s china; turtles chew up the rare-book collection; a giraffe eats the art deco chandelier; an armadillo tries on Harold’s mother’s pearls; monkeys vamp in tulle and silk; a hippo floods the bathroom. The uptight, neurasthenic Snipperpots present white while burly Mr. Ponzio presents black, with a large Afro and flamboyant garb. Mr. Ponzio appears only peripherally and doesn’t say much, and while extremely alluring, he is also sadly reminiscent of the “magical negro” stock character whose unexplained mystic powers have helped whites in their journeys for too long.
Wondering how this exhilarating disaster can possibly fulfill Harold’s birthday wish keeps readers puzzling right up until the culmination. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-249882-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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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
BOOK REVIEW
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