This delightful, wordless story encapsulates adventure and natural beauty through its charming illustrations and glyphs.
In this picture book, a curious bear who has just emerged from hibernation explores the vast wilderness and makes some friends along the way.
An unnamed bear emerges from their cave to see a sunny spring day and wanders around the forest. Next comes summer, when the bear befriends a turtle and embarks on various adventures such as swimming and hiding from lightning. Eventually, birds warn the bear about winter. As winter descends, the bear realizes it’s finally time to return to their cave and hibernate once again. While the book provides no words, each page contains one or more glyphs that reveal the storyline. The glyphs are explained in a glossary, with some being more obvious (a rain cloud meaning “rain”) than others (a small circle within a larger circle meaning “curious”). Valero’s captivating illustrations feature deep, saturated colors and an adorably rotund bear with a magnificently expressive face. They also include some unusual angles, such as a bee’s aerial view and a caterpillar’s glimpse of a gaping bear mouth as it’s about to be eaten. The lack of words does nothing to limit the bear’s escapades, with the actions and expressions made so clear that the glyphs are not always needed (although they certainly provide a lot of fun). Valero has created a book that is utterly unique—a wonderful romp through the woods that ultimately proves words are not always necessary to tell a rich, rewarding story.
This delightful, wordless story encapsulates adventure and natural beauty through its charming illustrations and glyphs.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798991386067
Page Count: 73
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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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