A congenial approach to encouraging awareness of and methods for protecting night skies.
In this illustrated children’s book, a puppy learns how to safeguard the night skies from light pollution.
Sagebrush, a tailless corgi puppy, lives in the Rocky Mountains with her dog parents, Maverick and Ginger, and Young Miss (her human owner) on a beautiful ranch. One night, Sagebrush wakes up suddenly and realizes it’s much darker outside than usual. She discovers that the ranch’s security light has burned out, and now the corgi can see “millions of stars brilliantly twinkling against the black velvet of the night sky.” She learns that such sights are rare now because of light pollution, and not just in cities. The ranch’s bright security light had obscured the stars, only visible now because the bulb burned out. Light pollution is bad for plants and animals because it upsets their natural day/night rhythms and ability to use celestial navigation. People, too, miss out; they can no longer study the constellations just by looking up at the night sky. When Mr. Electric Man arrives to replace the bulb, Sagebrush begs him not to. Luckily, he has a dark-sky shade he can install that reduces upward glare. Everyone on the ranch, especially Sagebrush, is delighted with the new shade. In this sixth installment of her series, Franks continues to address environmental issues mixed with fantasy elements—such as the Shuns, wise, gnomelike creatures rescued from habitat loss—making the message less preachy. The writing nicely captures Sagebrush’s sense of wonder at the newly dark sky: “For a few mysterious moments, time seemed to stand perfectly still as a thin cloud seemed to cloak itself around the moon.” Illustrator Visitacion contributes undistinguished, cartoonlike digital pictures that don’t reflect the setting’s lushness, though the dogs are cute.
A congenial approach to encouraging awareness of and methods for protecting night skies.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-66413-455-3
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Xlibris Corp
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
