An adorable and informative introduction to a beloved Chinese holiday.
A family of rabbits celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Sisters Jade and Crystal spend the morning with Mom making mooncakes, which the family then brings to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. There, Jade and Crystal offer their grandparents tea, mooncakes, and fruit baskets, eat a big dinner of lotus root, chestnuts, and mushrooms, and enjoy the gardens and full moon—while eating their favorite mooncakes. Along the way, Shum smoothly incorporates information about this Chinese holiday. When Crystal asks what mooncakes are made from, Mom responds, “Lotus seed paste…with a yummy salted egg yolk in the center to represent the moon.” She explains that the Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of the harvest and that the moon that rises at this time represents family. Readers will learn about traditional activities and games, such as the Chinese yo-yo. As the day comes to an end, Jade gazes up at the night sky. Though Auntie and Uncle Liu weren’t able to fly in this year to celebrate, Jade is happy, “knowing her family far away is looking at the same moon.” Large, simple cartoon illustrations of rabbits (each of whom is a different color) and concise text (just a few sentences per page) make for a cozy introduction to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Shum gently conveys the warmth and joy of this celebration; he wraps up with a retelling of the legend of Change’e, the moon goddess.
An adorable and informative introduction to a beloved Chinese holiday. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780593658833
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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BOOK REVIEW
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
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BOOK REVIEW
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