Interrupt your holiday hustle-bustle for this delightful read.
She’s baaaack…just in time for holiday hijinks.
Chicken and Papa are off to the ballet. Although Chicken has her tutu and ballet shoes with her, when Papa asks if she’ll interrupt the performance, she promises to behave. Readers familiar with Stein’s previous Chicken stories won’t believe her for a moment. In short order, she interrupts The Nutcracker three times: to show Clara her tutu, to stop Fritz from bullying poor Clara, and to save the Nutcracker from the Mouse King’s sword. Each interruption startles performers, annoys audience members, and mortifies poor Papa—while also inviting readers to laugh at Chicken’s slapstick, well-intentioned shenanigans, enhanced by clever visual gags in the multimedia illustrations. A fourth and final interruption occurs after Chicken and Papa are kicked out, and Chicken absconds with the Nutcracker, which Papa says she must return so the show can conclude. Here enters the book-within-a-book conceit from prior Chicken stories as she gives the narrator onstage a new script to read, explaining how the Nutcracker returns to Clara. Stein’s metafictive narrative is sidesplittingly funny, capturing with aplomb young children’s endearingly exasperating tendency to speak up when it’s least convenient. Post-show comments from the audience (“What a great show!” “I’ve never seen a Nutcracker like that!”) will doubtlessly be echoed by those reading this book, the series’ most successful offering since its original 2011 Caldecott Honor title. The human performers vary in skin tone.
Interrupt your holiday hustle-bustle for this delightful read. (game) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781536207798
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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