Drops dollops of wisdom into a sure storytime hit.
A sly morality tale featuring a dung beetle and a lot of his favorite stuff.
Usually the beetle is grateful for the sun, the sky, and whatever he receives from the elephants towering high overhead—“SPLAT!” But then a leopard’s remark about a distant farm “with more dung than any beetle could dream of” leads him to a cow barn where the fragrant deposits are so thrillingly massive that he must hire other beetles to help. They gather the dung into a tall, teetering, jealously guarded mountain that’s far too large to roll anywhere. Alas, such untrammeled greed can have but one catastrophic result, but rather than becoming a fecal fatality, the beetle emerges from the climactic monumental dungslide a chastened insect. With a renewed appreciation for what he had, he returns to the river bank to take joy in the warm sun, the boundless forest, and, of course, his fair and sufficient share of SPLAT. Kitted out with wide eyes and, when he’s swimming in the fresh gloop, a winningly goofy grin, the six-legged scarab, roughly the size of the toenails on the enormous elephantine feet behind him, stands in the ground-level scenes with limbs raised joyously to the sky in supplication. Weber brushes atmospheric views of moonlit grasses and cranes flying across a red sun into art that, along with the tale’s terse, formal language, lends a properly folkloric tone to the drollery.
Drops dollops of wisdom into a sure storytime hit. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781368100083
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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
From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers.
A winning wheel of cheddar with braggadocio to match narrates a tale of comeuppance and redemption.
From humble beginnings among kitchen curds living “quiet lives of pasteurization,” the Big Cheese longs to be the best and builds success and renown based on proven skills and dependable results: “I stuck to the things I was good at.” When newcomer Wedge moves to the village of Curds-on-Whey, the Cheese’s star status wobbles and falls. Turns out that quiet, modest Wedge is also multitalented. At the annual Cheese-cathlon, Wedge bests six-time winner Cheese in every event, from the footrace and chess to hat making and bread buttering. A disappointed Cheese throws a full-blown tantrum before arriving at a moment of truth: Self-calming, conscious breathing permits deep relief that losing—even badly—does not result in disaster. A debrief with Wedge “that wasn’t all about me” leads to further realizations: Losing builds empathy for others; obsession with winning obscures “the joy of participating.” The chastened cheddar learns to reserve bragging for lifting up friends, because anyone can be the Big Cheese. More didactic and less pun-rich than previous entries in the Food Group series, this outing nevertheless couples a cheerful refrain with pithy life lessons that hit home. Oswald’s detailed, comical illustrations continue to provide laughs, including a spot with Cheese onstage doing a “CHED” talk.
From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063329508
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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