A sweet but somewhat-flimsy visual treat.
Three friends learn that imitation isn’t the best way to demonstrate appreciation.
Fran, a white earthworm, Hudson, a gray hippo, and Jean, a smiling, hovering white light bulb, have “one thing in common”: Each wants to be a rhinoceros. They admire rhinoceroses for distinct reasons, which seem to reflect qualities they feel they lack themselves: For example, petite Fran appreciates rhinoceroses’ intimidating aspect. The friends form a secret rhinoceros-appreciation society, at which they all wear paper horns—but their celebration faces a challenge when they meet Ivy, a pale gray rhinoceros who doesn’t know how to charge, snort, or sharpen her horns. She’s a gardener, she explains. However, she does recognize that the group has more to offer than their perceived shortcomings, and, with her encouragement, the Secret Rhino Society transforms their clubhouse into a space—a delightful sandwich shop—that welcomes all. Cotterill’s delicate yet exuberant hand-built three-dimensional cardboard illustrations are a perfect foil to the book’s theme of navigating expectations and assumptions about others. Unfortunately, the text itself is underwhelming, and the book’s premise falls short of its potential. The abrupt shift from rhinoceros-appreciation-bordering-on-appropriation to selling sandwiches (especially to nameless characters who appear only in the final spread) makes for a less-successful narrative arc than the title and artwork have promised. Nevertheless, it could help kick-start conversations about stereotypes.
A sweet but somewhat-flimsy visual treat. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3000-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
A meaty tale of unlikely friendship.
A child’s love soothes even the most savage heart in this revisionist version of the classic fairy tale.
On the way to Great-Grandpa’s house, Little Red (short for Redmond Jasper Jones)—attired in red overalls, shoes, and cap—frequently runs into Fred, a large gray wolf who’s positively salivating over the possibility of a juicy meal. Little Red’s delighted to see Fred (the child dubs him the “coolest, biggest, fluffiest…KITTY in the whole wild world”); Fred’s just as happy to see Little Red, but for entirely different reasons. Fred’s constantly setting traps for Little Red, which the unaware child somehow manages to sidestep at the last minute. When temperatures plummet, Fred is injured while attempting to snare Little Red, so the child takes him to Great-Grandpa’s house. There, the youngster learns Fred is not a cat; bespectacled Great-Grandpa points out that Fred is in fact…a dog. Close enough? With plentiful meals and treats and a toasty bed, Fred is unsure whether his benefactor is a friend or food, but he decides to go along with it. Belote’s snappy text mines great humor from the gulf between Little Red’s trusting attitude and Fred’s clearly nefarious intentions; youngsters will derive great satisfaction from seeing what Little Red so obviously misses. The exaggerated art is filled with hijinks; the near misses will remind many adults of the Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons. Little Red is brown-skinned; Great-Grandpa is pale-skinned.
A meaty tale of unlikely friendship. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593902431
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A sweet, if oft-told, story.
A plush toy rabbit bonds with a boy and watches him grow into adulthood.
The boy receives the blue bunny for his birthday and immediately becomes attached to it. Unbeknownst to him, the ungendered bunny is sentient; it engages in dialogue with fellow toys, giving readers insight into its thoughts. The bunny's goal is to have grand adventures when the boy grows up and no longer needs its company. The boy spends many years playing imaginatively with the bunny, holding it close during both joyous and sorrowful times and taking it along on family trips. As a young man, he marries, starts a family, and hands over the beloved toy to his toddler-aged child in a crib. The bunny's epiphany—that he does not need to wait for great adventures since all his dreams have already come true in the boy's company—is explicitly stated in the lengthy text, which is in many ways similar to The Velveteen Rabbit (1922). The illustrations, which look hand-painted but were digitally created, are moderately sentimental with an impressionistic dreaminess (one illustration even includes a bunny-shaped cloud in the sky) and a warm glow throughout. The depiction of a teenage male openly displaying his emotions—hugging his beloved childhood toy for example—is refreshing. All human characters present as White expect for one of the boy’s friends who is Black.
A sweet, if oft-told, story. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72825-448-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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