An inventive tale that may spook its audience.
A pink gorilla surprises the narrator in this early reader from Todd.
The book opens with Jesse, a young boy, narrating a wild tale to Rosalinda, whom he’s just run into in an alley. Jesse tells her a whopping story (a variation on an age-old dad joke involving a pink or sometimes purple gorilla). His best friend Phil, who’s quite a bit older than Jesse, calls him urgently asking for help, but he’s secretive about the reason. It turns out, Phil’s keeping a fuzzy, live, pink gorilla in a small cage in his creepy basement. Transfixed, Jesse tries to stick his arm in to pet the gorilla before Phil unequivocally forbids him to do so. Phil asks Jesse to feed the gorilla one banana per day while Phil is on vacation. Jesse obsesses over the creature and has nightmares about it. He wonders, “What would it be like to touch that warm, soft, fuzzy, pink gorilla?”Unsurprisingly, Jesse can’t control himself, and he strokes the gorilla’s back. Terrified, he scrambles out of the house and bikes away as fast as he can, catching a glimpse of the gorilla chasing him. Turning down an alley, Jesse braces himself, eyes shut. The gorilla touches Jesse’s head and says, “Tag! You’re it!” Rosalinda surprises Jesse by telling a similar story about her best friend Ayla then asks Jesse if he notices anything about himself. Jesse realizes that he has become the pink gorilla. The story is a page-turner, and the digital illustrations by Vilches vaguely resemble anime characters, but the ages of the characters are unclear, and more context would be welcome. The prose is richly descriptive when the author writes about, for example, the screeching doors and dusty underground tunnel. Since this is an early reader, it’s worth noting that there’s a distinctly unsafe scenario in which an adult leads a child to a basement and asks the child to keep everything a secret. Still, this is a lively story with a killer ending that will hook and/or terrify readers.
An inventive tale that may spook its audience.Pub Date: May 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781958753125
Page Count: 51
Publisher: Purple Cotton Candy Arts
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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