A cozy, read-aloud holiday treat for children.
It’s Christmas Eve, and all through the house, the mice are indeed stirring, whipping up candy treats as Santa’s secret helpers.
The 19th-century poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” inspired this whimsical debut picture book, but, according to Meyer, the holiday classic got it wrong. When a dad—reading the poem to his children on Christmas Eve—comes to “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,” little Max, eavesdropping from a hole in the wall, is a bit indignant. Christmas Eve is the busiest night of all for Max and the rest of the Mouse family, living unseen behind the house’s walls. Part of Santa’s “secret team,” they are “stirring and mixing and cooking and baking” goodies to help fill the white family’s Christmas stockings. Meyer’s gentle fantasy is well-crafted and homey, inviting the book’s target audience into a snug kitchen where Mama Mouse makes sugarplums and Max and sister Molly stretch warm candy “’til it turned white as Santa’s beard.” The author’s playful touches include “magic mouse ladders” that enable the rodents to reach the mantel and turn into slides so they can “whoooooooosh” back down and a little spider character for children to track in each illustration. Kindly Santa Claus and Meyer’s end-of-book, mousecentric rewrite of the famous poem contribute to the tale’s overall warmth. Soft hues and appealing details add a sweet dream vibe in Saumell (Luna the Unicorn, 2017, etc.) and Papeo’s (Jack’s Favourite Things, 2010, etc.) full-bleed images. They alternate with pages of clear black text centered against a gold background bordered by a snowflake design.
A cozy, read-aloud holiday treat for children.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9827943-4-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: The Beckham Publications Group
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property.
Since a reformed Grinch is hardly any fun, this follow-up Grinches him up once more.
Those seeking more of the same, prepare to receive precisely that. Christmas is coming (again!), and the Grinch can hardly wait. He’s been patient all year, and now he can finally show the Whos down in Who-ville how much he’s changed. When the Grinch learns of a tree-decorating contest, he figures that if he wins, it’ll prove he truly has the Christmas spirit. He throws himself into the task, but when it comes time to judge the trees, the Grinch is horrified to discover that he’s received only the second-place trophy. Can Cindy-Lou Who find the words to save the day? Replicating many of the original beats and wordplay of the original, this tale feels like less a sequel and more like a vaguely rewritten variation. Meanwhile, Ruiz’s art seeks to bridge the gap between the animated Chuck Jones version of the Grinch and the one depicted in the original book. This thankless task results in a strange uncanny valley between Seuss and Jones but does allow the artist a chance to colorize everything and lend some racial diversity to the Who population (Cindy-Lou is light-skinned). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593563168
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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