A creative, confident spin on classic picture-book themes.
A group of insects scopes out new spots to live.
Upon leaving their crowded anthill, seven ants travel single file through its intricately ordered tunnels on their way to ask wise Mole what to do. Mole, snug in his tiny, trinket-filled den, tells them to keep going and “follow the sun.” They head up and up along a tree trunk until they reach a “red orb,” an apple inhabited by a “chubby creature.” One ant decides to join this plump, voracious caterpillar in the palpably damp interior, waving goodbye with “juice-sticky” feet. The rest of the ants continue their vertical voyage, finding new homes with delightfully improbable company, one inside a busy beehive, another beneath a sleeping owl’s pillow. After a kerfuffle with a spider, one ant even decides to head back home. Familiar touchstones of children’s literature are plentiful here—the reiterative quest, the repeated counting of the ants, and the curious habitats of the animals they meet. Playfully discursive narration lets readers linger on each scene, savoring the accompanying artwork. Details inside the various homes add whimsy—for instance, The Goldfinch and The Raven are stacked atop the owl’s dresser. Yoon’s offset lithography color technique adds a mesmerizing textural quality at once richly organic and highly organized, a style well suited to its central septet of adventurous arthropods.
A creative, confident spin on classic picture-book themes. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9781797216102
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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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