A well-tempered experiment in having your (carrot) cake and eating it too, with a moderate test of forbearance.
Honey Moneybunny returns, this time with tips on how to save money.
After having guided readers on how to Spend It! and Earn It! (2019, 2017), this time young Honey Moneybunny is in need of a sanctuary from her rambunctious little siblings. A house of her own is too ambitious, not to mention she is a tad young to live alone, so she and her father settle on a playhouse. Her father advises her that a playhouse will cost her 10 carrots—carrots being the coin of the realm in Bunnyland—and so it will take her five weeks of saving the two carrots per week she earns taking care of her siblings. But here McLeod introduces a smart alternative to straight saving: saving a portion of each week’s take so that Honey can enjoy some treats from her allowance yet continue to save at the same time, albeit at a slower rate. It is about as painless an introduction to division as one could hope for. To top it off, the story also introduces the act of patience, which is another tough lesson. But Honey is such a charmer, and she goes about her task with such good-natured earnestness—and the language of the book is so consolingly you-can-do-it—that you can’t help but cheer for her to save for her playhouse.
A well-tempered experiment in having your (carrot) cake and eating it too, with a moderate test of forbearance. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-1240-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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
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