A sweet friendship tale, rosy in every sense.
A child helps a magical companion find a forever home in a sugary adventure with waggish interactive elements.
“It was a day full of RAINBOWS. And I was playing picnic in my TREE HOUSE…when all of a sudden I heard a KNOCK on my door. It was a unicorn. I LOVE unicorns.” Worried that the rainbow-maned beast is lost, the blond, peach-skinned young narrator offers reassurance (“I will find you a new home!”), and the two set off. Ruling out a pet shop, a farm (“The food was DISGUSTING”), and the “VERY STRANGE” Famous Unicorn Carousel (where the other unicorns “wouldn’t even stop to say hello!”), the pair visit plausible spots until landing upon the unicorn’s ideal home. The glossy, foil-tinged cover will surely speak to a certain dainty readership, but the protagonist’s thoughtful and mission-oriented persistence belies the princessy palette. Hand lettering reminiscent of Oliver Jeffers’ work adorns Yarlett’s pleasingly childish, candy-colored mixed-media illustrations on thick pages embellished with five lift-the-flap elements—including letters and a shop flyer—that enhance the storyline. Humorously detailed, full-page artwork includes visual gags as the unicorn susses out each failed location. Redolent with pink, this first-person point-of-view evolution of a proprietary relationship into a bonded friendship delivers on its promised “magical surprises” and should delight fans of fantastical adventure stories and unexpected pet dramas.
A sweet friendship tale, rosy in every sense. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781536246469
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Familiar fare that fans are sure to eagerly snag.
The ever-expanding How To Catch series adds yet another target for young hunters.
Move over, Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and a couple of dozen others: Walstead and Elkerton have another mythical creature in their crosshairs. In this latest installment, a group of diverse campers attempt to capture a shaggy but lovable sasquatch. Bigfoot, whose face is rarely seen and who narrates in verse, emerges from a cozy, elaborate treehouse to investigate a nearby campfire and secure food for a youngster. The scent of s’mores proves a powerful draw, and soon Bigfoot is subjected to the various traps improvised by the kids. Although the campers look “freaked out,” it’s Bigfoot who must run. Snagging a small treat, our narrator (who’s “not SCARY… / just tall and hairy!”) avoids the other lures. Meanwhile, the forest animals accidentally interfere, and the kids struggle with some unworkable options, like a water-spraying robot (delivered to their campsite?). Finally, the campers, realizing that Bigfoot has a child, leave the “Bigfoot Family” a cooler full of food, and Bigfoot happily concludes, “Now my son has all the friends / he could ever really need” (though they never actually interact—still, it’s better than being prey!). Uneven rhythm makes the lines wobbly, though the rhymes generally work. Elkerton uses lots of bird’s-eye perspectives in his usual colorful cartoon style; the wacky hijinks will keep series devotees entertained.
Familiar fare that fans are sure to eagerly snag. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781464230776
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The premise is worn gossamer thin, and the joke stopped being funny, if it ever was, long ago.
A fairy tending their garden manages to survive a gaggle of young intruders.
In halting cadences typical of the long-running—and increasingly less amusing—How To Catch… series, the startled mite—never seen face-on in Elkerton’s candy-colored pictures and indeterminate of gender—wonders about the racially diverse interlopers: “Do they know that I can grant wishes? / Or that a new fairy is born when they giggle?” The visual action rather belies the sweetness of the verses, the palette, the bright flowers, and the multicolored resident zebras and unicorns, as after repeated, elaborately designed efforts to trap or even shoot (with a peashooter) the fairy come to naught, the laughing children are escorted out of the garden beneath a rising moon. The encounter ends on a (perhaps unconsciously) ominous note. “Hope they find their way back sometime,” the butterfly-winged narrator concludes. “And just maybe next time they’ll stay!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The premise is worn gossamer thin, and the joke stopped being funny, if it ever was, long ago. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728263205
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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