Redheaded Robbie is a shy but well-liked second-grader who gets so tongue-tied in front of the class that he speaks in nonsense phrases, reproduced in the text in a loopy cursive type font. When Robbie is chosen at random to give a speech in front of the entire school, he asks his three friends for help with his preparations, but instead of receiving help, he ends up offering solid advice to each friend about the true meaning of the Christmas spirit. During Robbie’s nightmare speech, when he can only stammer out gibberish, his three friends come up to the stage and tell how Robbie (“a little angel with red hair”) helped each of them. Melanson’s retro-inspired illustrations use varied perspectives; unusual shades of burgundy, gray, and gold; and funny, round-headed kids that complement the droll humor of the story. Too much lesson, perhaps, but a “flurry Flickmas to all” anyway. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-58536-136-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
Uncomplicated and worthwhile for any age.
Parr focuses his simplistic childlike art and declarative sentences on gratitude for the pleasures and wonders of a child’s everyday life.
Using images of both kids and animals, each colorful scene in bold primary colors declaims a reason to be thankful. “I am thankful for my hair because it makes me unique” shows a yellow-faced child with a wild purple coiffure, indicating self-esteem. An elephant with large pink ears happily exclaims, “I am thankful for my ears because they let me hear words like ‘I love you.’ ” Humor is interjected with, “I am thankful for underwear because I like to wear it on my head.” (Parents will hope that it is clean, but potty-humor–loving children probably won’t care.) Children are encouraged to be thankful for feet, music, school, vacations and the library, “because it is filled with endless adventures,” among other things. The book’s cheery, upbeat message is clearly meant to inspire optimistic gratitude; Parr exhorts children to “remember some [things to be thankful for] every day.”
Uncomplicated and worthwhile for any age. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-18101-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Beautiful to behold but uneven to read.
O (little) Christmas tree!
Though it’s not as scraggly as the tree Charlie Brown selects in the television special, the little fir tree who narrates this story isn’t like the others in the forest. A scene in springtime reads, “While other trees grew poised and tall, / I lagged behind. / Looking different. / Feeling small.” When humans come to cut down trees to decorate for Christmas, the little fir tree isn’t chosen. It stands, lonesome, surrounded by the stumps of the other fir trees, with bare-branched deciduous trees in the background. In a happy turn, woodland animals hear the tree’s cries and bring “berries, feathers, / nuts, and flowers” to decorate it right where it stands. It’s a joyful, peaceable kingdom of a scene, enlivened with a bit of whimsy when the tree says that “a shooting star dropped down // [and] sank into my branches and shone so pure, / so bright, that I became a tree of light.” Here and throughout, Zommer’s gentle, warm illustrations outshine the text, which falters in its cadence and rhyme. Closing spreads show the tree growing taller, if still a bit crooked and spindly, with birds and forest animals around it. The final spread depicts a child of color and a white child reading books at its base, affirming the act of reading that brought real children to this closing page.
Beautiful to behold but uneven to read. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-11967-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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