The stars of a popular early-reader series move on to the picture-book world in this gentle story about finding a Christmas tree.
The two friends explore the wintry countryside together, focusing on trees and meeting noisy birds. Cork the muskrat is the thinker of the two, with “a head full of thoughts.” He offers logical explanations and leadership. Fuzz the possum seems “to have a head full of air,” asking hilarious questions, playing loudly, and generally acting as comic relief. Cork wants to find a good tree to sit under for a spell of thinking to try to figure out why this day is a special one, while Fuzz wants to sing his newly invented holiday song: "Merry, merry, holly, holly, ho-ho-ho!" As darkness falls, the pair find a jingle bell and a snowy evergreen decked with bright lights. They have time to think together about their special friendship before hanging the bell on the tree and singing their merry little tune together. The plot is minimal, and the repetitions of the made-up song are a little tedious, but Fuzz and Cork are both endearing fellows. McCue’s finely detailed watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture the personalities of the two animals as well as the magical atmosphere of the final snowy scene with the glowing Christmas tree.
A quiet, satisfying story about a charming pair of friends celebrating their affectionate bond. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-451-47501-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS
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A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.
Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.)
Animated and educational. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12506-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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