A humorous tale that will appeal to the poop-obsessed but that trivializes the amazing real-life facts.
It’s not often that the answer to a book’s problem is poop….
Booker the bat is the newest guard at the library, eating bugs to protect the books. He’s nervous about his first day and hopes to fit in with the other guards, who gather before each shift to share the previous night’s adventures. Booker uses his first night to acquaint himself with the library, and he’s in the perfect place to spy a burglar, but how to stop him? Luckily, Booker’s learned from the other guards’ tales and enacts a plan to get the man caught. Children in the anything-potty-related-is-hysterical phase will love Booker’s solution. Harter’s illustrations give each bat their own personality, their every emotion clear. The burglar is light-skinned; the person wielding a mop the next morning has darker skin. An opening “Bats and Books” note tells about the library in Portugal where bats really do protect the rare book collection from insects. But by anthropomorphizing the bats and giving them a problem to solve, the author minimizes the real-life history and also muddies the facts. For instance, the book makes it seem as if the bats are trained not to poop in the library. Though the opening note does say that eating that many bugs does lead to a lot of bat poop, it doesn’t say how it’s truly addressed (librarians cover the antique tables nightly and clean the floors each morning). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A humorous tale that will appeal to the poop-obsessed but that trivializes the amazing real-life facts. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64595-046-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pixel+Ink
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
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
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