An entertaining read-aloud that will encourage kids to dig even deeper.
When the home of BFFs Tortoise and Mouse springs a leak, Tortoise decides to dig a new burrow.
Mouse agrees that the two will play after Tortoise is done. But when Tortoise completes the job, Mouse is nowhere to be found. Other animals show up, each asking if there might be room for them, too. Tortoise obliges but continues to wonder: Where is Mouse? And where have all the other animals gone? Finally, Tortoise discovers Mouse has gone to visit Armadillo. Frustrated, Tortoise explodes at Mouse—only to discover that she and all the other grateful animals have a wonderful surprise. Reminiscent of Jan Brett’s classic tale The Mitten, the story deftly employs repetition as Tortoise digs: “a room for Rabbit, / a room for Tortoise, and a room for Mouse… / if she ever came back.” An author’s note explains that the protagonists are based on the real-life gopher tortoise and the Florida mouse; the former is a keystone species that creates homes for many other creatures. Readers curious about the habits of the other animals mentioned in the book will be spurred on to further research. Kastner’s gouache, watercolor, and pastel illustrations rely on warm natural shades and textures. The characters are deeply expressive, particularly Tortoise, whose enthusiasm, fatigue, and eventual anger are palpable. Cross-sectional views of the extensive burrow will suck in kids who enjoy maps or schematics.
An entertaining read-aloud that will encourage kids to dig even deeper. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781665931359
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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