Sweater weather has found its champion.
A love letter to fall and its delightful, delicious pumpkins.
In Garden Glen, fall turns all the vibrant gardens dull, but it’s Millie Fleur La Fae’s favorite season. After planting a varied pumpkin garden, she stores surplus seeds in her (sentient) shed, but Shed gets up and wanders away on bird feet, not unlike Baba Yaga’s house, spilling pumpkin seeds everywhere. The vines that quickly sprout take over the town and become one of the book’s main visual attractions. Pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors appear, including “gourds white as ghosts” and “pumpkins with curly mustaches.” Finding edible and productive uses for so many pumpkins leads to a party large enough to attract out-of-towners, depicted in a lovely two-page spread set at dusk. The resulting compost from all the pumpkins and vines benefits the next spring’s plants, demonstrating that “every season had something bright to offer.” Millie Fleur is a diligent and purposeful protagonist, if a bit peculiar, who demonstrates the power of proper pumpkin planning but also of pivoting when plans don’t go as expected. The artwork beautifully captures the autumnal setting, with the season first depicted in drab greens and browns before it bursts with color through its golden leaves and bright pumpkins. Millie Fleur appears white, while Garden Glen’s residents have a variety of skin tones.
Sweater weather has found its champion. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798225041335
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available.
A ghost learns to appreciate his differences.
The little ghost protagonist of this title is unusual. He’s a quilt, not a lightweight sheet like his parents and friends. He dislikes being different despite his mom’s reassurance that his ancestors also had unconventional appearances. Halloween makes the little ghost happy, though. He decides to watch trick-or-treaters by draping over a porch chair—but lands on a porch rail instead. A mom accompanying her daughter picks him up, wraps him around her chilly daughter, and brings him home with them! The family likes his looks and comforting warmth, and the little ghost immediately feels better about himself. As soon as he’s able to, he flies out through the chimney and muses happily that this adventure happened only due to his being a quilt. This odd but gently told story conveys the importance of self-respect and acceptance of one’s uniqueness. The delivery of this positive message has something of a heavy-handed feel and is rushed besides. It also isn’t entirely logical: The protagonist could have been a different type of covering; a blanket, for instance, might have enjoyed an identical experience. The soft, pleasing illustrations’ palette of tans, grays, white, black, some touches of color, and, occasionally, white text against black backgrounds suggest isolation, such as the ghost feels about himself. Most humans, including the trick-or-treating mom and daughter, have beige skin. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 66.2% of actual size.)
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6447-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A top-grade creepy/funny addition to the spooky-picture-book canon.
Is a cute kitty built in a castle’s laboratory responsible for the bad things that start happening?
“Here is a tale to chill the blood and thrill the soul—a tale of spooky paws and eerie claws.” The disembodied talking skull who narrates this story is alluding to Frankenkitty, who was engineered out of multiple cats, with visible stitches to show for it. As the house ghouls look on, Frankenkitty’s inventor laments, “I’ve created a monster!” Sure enough, bad things start happening: The mummy begins to unravel. Kitchen mice terrorize the cook. Certainly, Frankenkitty must be to blame. But after the butler, who resembles Frankenstein’s Monster, tosses Frankenkitty outside into the snow, where he looks forlorn and adorable, the skull has second thoughts: “Wait! Did we get it wrong?” It’s up to readers to make the call. Powell-Tuck goes all in with her spoof of old-time horror tropes, although kids needn’t know who Boris Karloff is to be tickled. For the book’s every scare (a severed foot and hand, their bones visible), there’s a wink (in a bit of metafictive fun, the skull urges readers to opt for a story about “unicorns, beasts, or bears”). Grey, a glutton for detail, leans on menacing reds and sickly greens to capture the frights, which include, in a line for the spooky-story ages, “walls as gray as old underpants.” Human characters vary in skin tone.
A top-grade creepy/funny addition to the spooky-picture-book canon. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781664300972
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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