A merry outing for young wordsmiths.
A passel of wombats transform a community with their sophisticated vocabulary.
Evergreen Forest is “very nice and very ordinary”; some residents, like the little duckling draped glumly over a log on the opening page, might say it’s “rather dull.” The duckling perks up when a trio of wombats “with words on their minds” come tripping along the path. Describing themselves as “word-loving,” the wombats tell the duckling that “words are…‘ESSENTIAL!’ ‘MAGNIFICENT!’ ‘TRANSFORMATIVE!’” The duckling watches and learns as the wombats help animals who use regular words such as thirsty and tired spice up their vocabularies with alternatives: parched and exhausted. The duckling is therefore well equipped to lead her own family from hungry and super hungry to peckish and ravenous, earning herself the title of “honorary word wombat” by book’s end. Nichols contributes friendly cartoon personae for Ferry’s characters, placing them against a woodsy backdrop. The compositions are minimally detailed, with a small blue slug accompanying the duckling and offering little ones a seek-and-find game on most pages. The wombats’ “wonderful words” are set in attention-getting display type; they literally fill the air as the denizens of Evergreen Forest join the word celebration in a conga line. As plots go, it’s pretty thin, but young listeners may well come away ready to seek out some new words to love and, inspired by the closing “duck-tionary,” to fill their own lexicons.
A merry outing for young wordsmiths. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9780593711057
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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