This low-key adventure is a pleasant diversion that effectively capitalizes on the appeal of timeless tales.
Artful illustrations, clever text, and echoes of traditional tales combine to elevate this somewhat familiar story of an intrepid young boar.
Allusions to folktales abound, from the opening (“Once upon a time”) to admonishments to beware of the Big Bad Wolf and to “stick to the path.” Perhaps the most charming and subtle connection is the unremarked-upon appearance of a frog sporting a small crown. Hogbert, our hero, has a rounded body, a sweet smile, and chipmunk-style stripes. Savvy listeners won’t be too surprised when Hogbert follows his snout and becomes separated from his family when the piglets explore the woods for the first time. Luckily, he soon finds some equally engaging companions, from Red, a squirrel on her way to visit her granny (hmm, sounds familiar), to a pair of lost rabbits named Hopsel and Nettle. Together the animals, who can speak but otherwise act in species-appropriate ways, journey through the forest and manage to evade a (not very big and apparently also lost) wolf cub. Smith’s relatively lengthy third-person narration flows smoothly and features a variety of evocative words and phrases, along with a bit of unexpected but particularly apt slang. “Smell you later!” is Hogbert’s farewell to his new friend Red. The skilled depiction of the sylvan setting includes lovely flowers, towering trees, and constantly shifting light and shadow.
This low-key adventure is a pleasant diversion that effectively capitalizes on the appeal of timeless tales. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781536245035
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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