A sweet children’s story about doing kind things for others.
A thoughtful child aims to share candy with a lonely man on the moon in Weisberg and Yoffe’s Halloween-themed illustrated book for young readers.
Jessica is excited for trick or treating, especially on a night with a full moon. She and her older sister, Amy—dressed as a witch and a cat, respectively—walk among the other costumed children until Jessica asks about whether a man lives on the moon and whether that location is made of cheese. “Wouldn’t the man who lives on the moon get tired of eating moldy cheese all the time?” Jessica asks. However, Amy is focused on getting candy. When Jessica gets home, she’s still thinking about the man on the moon; she writes a letter to “men who go to the moon,” asking them to share her sweets with the man up there and also to give him her enclosed witch mask, so he can block out the moon’s brightness and get better sleep. After a few days, Jessica discovers a thank-you note under her pillow and notices that the man on the moon’s penmanship is a lot like Amy’s; older readers are sure to realize that her sibling was paying a lot more attention to Jessica and her questions than the younger sister realized. Weisberg and Yoffe tell the story with enough delicacy that younger readers who believe in such figures as the tooth fairy and Santa Claus may accept the magic of the man in the moon, while older one will realize the real focus of the story is the relationship between two caring siblings. The author varies the amount of text on each page; occasional tricky vocabulary words (parlor, glimpse) may challenge newly independent readers to stretch their skills. Gousios’ full-color illustrations feature strong outlines with softer shades and lines filling in details. Close-up illustrations of Jessica and Amy are especially well executed, but others, such as those set in Jessica’s bare-walled room, feel unfinished.
A sweet children’s story about doing kind things for others.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 979-8351759968
Page Count: 31
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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
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BOOK REVIEW
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