Kids without a frame of reference will still get a kick out of these goofy gulls.
Take a seaside location, add a colony of gulls and the alphabet, and the result is a clever abecedary specific to Maine.
On each page one word is paired with a gull whose name begins with the same letter and who acts out the descriptive, alliterative sentence. “Airplane / Avery has an afternoon adventure in an airplane.” The red print in “Airplane” is echoed by red wings on the aircraft itself and, in the distance, red stripes on a lighthouse down below. A goggled gull is in the cockpit, giving readers a “thumbs up” with its wing. “Lobster / Ledge loves to see the lobsters in his trap.” A gull clad in red waterproof overalls holds an old-fashioned lobster pot under one wing; four live green lobsters accessorize the picture. As always with an alphabet book, some letters are less fertile than others. “Queen / The sandcastle makes Quoddy feel like a queen.” The letter X shows Xander looking at an X-ray of his broken leg; Zeke zips up his life jacket before zooming off in a canoe to Zephyr Cove. The simple, flat illustrations have a paper-collage, playful look that is amusing. The unusual names are explained by a note on the back cover that states that most of the gulls are named after Maine islands: Nubble, Vaill, Keeler, Haskell, and more. Though the gulls all look the same, it’s their outfits and actions that add individuality.
Kids without a frame of reference will still get a kick out of these goofy gulls. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-944762-08-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Islandport Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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