This engaging animal tale affirms that meaningful experiences exist outside holiday festivities.
In this picture book, it’s hard to be a little porcupine who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa.
In the yellow light of a chilly morning, Annie worries about the last day of school before winter break. On the ride to school, just as she has dreaded, Annie’s friend Maggie asks about her Christmas tree. Annie doesn’t have one because she doesn’t observe the holiday. Scowling a little, she explains. But throughout the day, kids chatter about Hanukkah, letters to Santa, and Christmas tunes, and the holiday zeal becomes oppressive. The students’ cheerful assumptions grate, and Annie feels lonely, without presents to talk about or holiday spirit. With solitude comes anger. After an outburst, she feels lingering anxiety: Is her porcupine family weird? It’s only when she is at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the woods with a roaring fire, carrot cake, and moonlit snow that she appreciates that even without holidays, her family spends important quality time together. Neumann’s work is a little long for lap readers—though perhaps it will spark discussions with elementary school students. Still, Annie’s story is likely to resonate with kids who feel upset and frustrated by the centrality and omnipresence of holiday celebrations in social life. Rusu’s lively, warm-toned watercolors and energetic scratchy lines buoy a narrative unafraid of affirming children’s understandable anger at their experiences not being recognized—though the effect of Annie’s bad mood on her peers remains unexplored.
This engaging animal tale affirms that meaningful experiences exist outside holiday festivities.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-953910-15-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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