A cleverly illustrated ocean tale offering charming details and accessible educational elements.
A tooth fairy helps out under the sea in Morgan’s picture book.
The shark tooth fairy, Mrs. Chompers, asks the human tooth fairy, Mrs. Pearly White, to fill in for her while she’s out sick. Mrs. Pearly White agrees, chanting a magic spell that turns her into a mermaid for 24 hours. Now under the water, she uses her magical map to locate the many shark pups hiding teeth under their pillows, which she exchanges for treats (it’s not indicated exactly what these treats are). However, because sharks “have more teeth than humans do,” the list of houses Mrs. Pearly White must visit continues to grow. Soon, she runs out of treats. Resourcefully, she opens up oyster shells, collects the pearls, and swaps them for the shark pups’ teeth. After an eventful evening, she returns home in time to tuck in her daughter, Ivory. The story here is sweet and imaginative. The tale would have been more engaging, however, if readers could take part in a lengthier, problem-solving process. The author includes helpful educational resources, like a list of “Ten Ways That You Can Protect Our Waterways,” featuring practical solutions (use reusable water bottles). Civati’s brightly hued, cartoonlike portrayals feature friendly faces with big eyes and depictions of anthropomorphic undersea happenings, like shark pups tucked into their beds. The gradient backdrops, including sea and skylines, are particularly lovely. The human characters are White.
A cleverly illustrated ocean tale offering charming details and accessible educational elements.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64307-268-5
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Mascot Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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