Teamwork, sharing, and neighborly friendship emerge as integral ingredients in this sweet, satisfying book for young readers.
Forest friends need an egg to bake a cake, and while their animal neighbors cannot offer all the other necessary ingredients, they do join the confectionary quest.
Mouse needs the egg for an omelet, but Blackbird has only flour, with which they can make cake. They find Dormouse, who has butter and who suggests everybody approach Mole, who has sugar—but still no egg. The roving (and ever growing) band of merry would-be bakers will bring smiles to small readers, who will rejoice in reciting the growing list of creatures and chiming in with their choral salutations of each new animal: “Good morning, neighbor.” This endearing story’s accumulation of animals, donations, and repetitive phrasing cleverly underscores (and embodies) the abundant, collaborative love of a tightknit community. Dek’s watercolor illustrations evoke folk-art charm with their straightforward brush strokes, chunky caricatures, absence of perspective, and inherent warmth expressed through lovely details. Hedgehog sits idly in a bentwood rocker; a window box of plants hangs outside Blackbird’s hollow-tree entry; strings of lights drape tree branches; a roped boardwalk spirals up a trunk to Owl’s nest; a painted checkerboard motif distinguishes Mouse’s doorway. When it’s finally time to cut the cake, readers might feel eager to initiate their own cooking project or perhaps simply to run across the way to find a friend.
Teamwork, sharing, and neighborly friendship emerge as integral ingredients in this sweet, satisfying book for young readers. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61689-699-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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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