Financial planning never looked so good.
In Bunnyland, money matters get an early start.
McLeod’s Moneybunny series aims to teach young readers “a few simple facts about money.” In this volume, the focus is on making choices about what to buy. Sonny, the young bunny protagonist, wants to buy everything, but he only gets 3 carrots a week as an allowance. (In keeping with the conventions of currency, McLeod uses numerals instead of spelling numbers out.) Sonny’s mom, who dispenses wisdom while raking up a Technicolor pile of leaves, tells Sonny he is going to have to make choices because different things cost different amounts of carrots. That toy rocket costs 2 carrots, and the pogo stick costs 3 carrots, while the bouncy castle costs 100 (represented in a double-page spread of 100 carrots, arrayed in five rows of 20). (“That’s RIDICULOUS!” cries Sonny.) His mom suggests he give it some thought, to which Sonny blurts the universal credo: “I don’t want to THINK! I want to SPEND!” Good thing Sonny hasn’t got a carrot credit card. So Sonny gets to thinking how to spend his carrots, and a supercritical lesson is learned: consider how and what you spend your money on. (Saving was tackled in Earn It, 2017.) The lesson goes down smoothly because it presents options for ways to satisfy the urge to spend—it also helps that Sonny is cute as a you-know-what.
Financial planning never looked so good. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-54446-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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