A holiday vignette for kids that gently emphasizes a theme of universal friendship.
In author Cummings and illustrator Mosley’s children’s narrative, two boys’ families come together for a Christmas celebration, and the boys are rewarded by a visit from Santa Claus.
The writer-illustrator team follow up their book In the Nick of Time (2019) with another title set during the December holidays. Prior familiarity with the first book is not necessary to follow the simple action in this one. The two young main characters return in the installment, which, like the first, involves Santa Claus. Nick Saint, who’s Black, is best friends with Cooper, a White boy his own age, and Nick’s home hosts Cooper and some of their neighbors for a Christmas Eve open-house celebration that also includes elements of Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. The merry soirée is a hit, and Cooper sleeps over, as planned, on the couch. In the middle of the night, Cooper is “startled by a thud at the bottom of the chimney. All Cooper saw were black boots surrounded by a cloud of dust.” After looking closer, Cooper wakes up Nick, concerned, as he thinks that the man he saw can’t be Santa, because he’s Black, and he’s never seen a Black Santa before. “My Santa is Black,” responds Nick. Soon, the boys have an awestruck meeting with the kindly Santa himself. He loves the homemade cookies that the family left out for him, and he leaves a note behind after his departure, commending the young pals and noting that “the world needs your message of friendship.”
The upbeat conclusion, featuring the missive from Santa Claus, is the only part of the story that features rhyming verse; in it, Santa points out that “Santa always looks like love,” and “love comes in all shapes and colors,” making it clear that Father Christmas can have a wide range of appearances. It also reminds the boys to not “waste one minute of the day / worrying about things people say about skin or color. / There are more important things to spend time on like, / spreading hope, / and taking care of one another.” The rest of the story is told in pleasantly conversational prose that meshes well with Mosley’s fruitcake-bright and festive full-color artwork. The narrative is uncomplicated, but it makes for an inclusive, conflict-free heart-warmer of a tale. At the end of the book, the creators explain that this book is a rarity in children’s literature, as it is a collaboration between a Black writer and a Black illustrator. Some readers may wish that the story featured larger speaking roles for Black female characters, although Nick’s mother does make an appearance. An easy-to-follow recipe for Nickydoodles, a baked treat that Nick’s mother makes during the story featuring toffee candy bars and ground cinnamon, is certain to have a great deal of appeal for young readers—just as it does for both Cooper and Santa over the course of the story itself.
Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2022
ISBN: 9781951218324
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Make A Way Media, LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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