A fresh look at the family farm.
Painter and poet Florian delivers the latest in a long line of humorously themed collections.
A brown-skinned child wearing overalls and pink sneakers narrates 23 poems that highlight the animals, crops, and routines of the family farm. Florian’s signature wordplay appears in poems such as “Cows”: “Udderly calm, / and udderly still. / Cows are udderly, udderly chill.” With his visual jesting, the author often upends expectations by placing animals in humanlike settings. The cow reclines, sipping a cool drink, while elsewhere, a rabbit poses for a selfie. “The Barn” extols the importance of such buildings: “A place that’s safe and free from harm, / the barn’s the center of the farm.” The poet doesn’t shirk from the ongoing toil that comprises daily farm life. “Rise at dawn. / Mow the lawn. / Milk the cows. / Feed the sows. / Pull up weeds. / Plant some seeds.” “Corn” riffs on that plant’s long lineage in Mexico. Corn “grows / in rows / a-maize-ing,” while the facing page shows an image of a half-shucked ear spelling out the word maize in darker kernels. The mix of fact and fancy continues throughout. “Collie” sings the praises of an expert shepherd depicted in boxing gloves, holding predatory wolves at bay. “Llamas” portrays a woolly creature (whose “llovely hair makes fleece for yarn”) knitting placidly. Florian’s mixed-media pictures and punny verse charm once again.
A fresh look at the family farm. (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781665937740
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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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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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