Sumptuous illustrations help this sweet lesson in perseverance go down easy.
Ember the dragon is tasked with preparing a special dessert under a tight deadline.
Ember has been enjoying his job working with light-skinned human Beatrice in her bakery. Ember’s a natural, whipping up sumptuous golden loaves. One day, Beatrice leaves Ember in charge while she makes deliveries. A demand comes in from the tiny vegetable fairy Princess Turnip: to whip up a cake for the fairy queen’s birthday. Ember’s never heard of “‘birthday cake’ bread,” but he does his best. His concoctions displease Princess Turnip, but with some encouragement from the princess—and a recipe from the library—Ember makes a lovely, golden, two-tiered cake with rosettes and candles. After delivering his creation to the delighted fairy queen, Ember returns to the bakery feeling newly inspired, filling the store with cakes and showing Beatrice and the customers a new offering. Like our protagonist’s first outing, The Bakery Dragon (2024), this one features captivating artwork. The bakery is awash in golden tones, evoking the magic of a fairy tale. With big, expressive eyes, red-winged Ember is as adorable as ever. The newly introduced princess appears to be a sentient vegetable—her dress and hair are leafy greens, while her arms and legs are formed from the root. The message to try new things, even if you fail at first, is a meaningful one, clear enough without verging on heavy-handedness.
Sumptuous illustrations help this sweet lesson in perseverance go down easy. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593710999
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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