This unassuming story is an intergenerational delight.
Like the stealthy spider quietly spinning its web on a low bough, life around and on the apple tree is never static.
With each turn of the page, curious foxes, scampering squirrels, nesting birds, and cavorting bear cubs entertain a watchful owl stationed in a hollow in the trunk. The textured cover’s die-cut window nearly traverses the entire book. From the owl’s hollow to the cubs climbing the broad trunk and the squirrels and birds among its branches, multiplying cutouts reveal new critters and beg to be poked through by itchy fingers. The accompanying spare but whimsical couplets lull readers through the seasons from one winter to the next, then on to spring again. “The seasons have all come and gone. / Snow has fallen, sun has shone. // Owl sees the first new buds appear, / and so begins another year….” Teckentrup’s stylized block-print artwork focuses readers’ eyes on the myriad details of the unfolding forest scenes. On the left of each spread, the tree is brown with gold/green flecks and boasts big green apples; on the right, the mirror-image tree is rust with gold flecks and dangles red apples. Multicolored leaves change with the weather until a bare tree stands alone in drifts of snow. Adult readers will relish guiding their little ones into lessons about the seasons, colors, wildlife, and more.
This unassuming story is an intergenerational delight. (Picture book. 3-10)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-10-193242-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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
A riotously fresh take on breaking the fourth wall.
This book may not have pictures, but it’s sure to inspire lots of conversations—and laughs.
Television writer, actor and comedian Novak delivers a rare find, indeed: a very good celebrity picture book. It doesn’t even seem fair to call it such, since it has nothing to do with his Emmy Award–winning writing for The Office or the fame his broader career has afforded him. The jacket flap even eschews a glossy photo, instead saying “B.J. has brown hair and blue eyes,” in order to keep with the book’s central conceit. What this book does have is text, and it’s presented through artful typography that visually conveys its changing tone to guide oral readings. Furthermore, the text implies (or rather, demands) a shared reading transaction, in which an adult is compelled to read the text aloud, no matter how “COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS” it is. Employing direct address, it pleads with the implied child listener to allow him or her to stop reading. Nonsense words, silly words to be sung and even a smattering of potty talk for good measure all coalesce in riotous read-aloud fare. Although the closing pages beg the implied child reader to “please please please please / please / choose a book with pictures” for subsequent reading, it’s likely that this request will be ignored.
A riotously fresh take on breaking the fourth wall. (. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4171-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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