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WHAT IF WILHELMINA

Name: WHAT IF WILHELMINA
Author: Joseph Belisle
ISBN: 978-1-949467-41-3

by Joseph Belisle ; illustrated by Joseph Belisle ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2021

This earnest book doesn’t get its message across.

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A child worries about a runaway cat and shirks the blame for letting the pet out.

Our anxious narrator, a brown-skinned child with curly hair, insists from the beginning that it wasn’t their fault. They pin the blame on their two fathers, who present as White, and a squirrel. Wilhelmina the cat has run out the door (opened by Dad) to chase a squirrel and is nowhere to be found. Dad and Papa tell the child that Wilhelmina will come back and encourage them to take a nap. The child can’t imagine this. Their horror mimics a reproduction they have painted of Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream. “But…What if?” On spread after spread, the child is shown with thought bubbles picturing various unfortunate fates that could befall the beloved kitty. Attentive readers will spot the kitty outside the window mimicking the child’s worried expressions, and knowledgeable adults will pick up on additional famous artworks alluded to throughout. The story itself is mundane, and the telling does not add much to the entertainment value. The cartoon illustrations are stiff and lack variety. The incorporation of famous artwork is a nice idea, but since the art is mostly unrelated to the story, it feels arbitrary (small print directs readers to the publisher’s website to find out more about it). While many children have endured a pet scare, it is difficult to imagine this story resonating with a circle much wider than the family upon which it is based. A portion of the proceeds will go to Kids in Crisis.

This earnest book doesn’t get its message across. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-949467-41-3

Page Count: 38

Publisher: Blair

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

- BOOK REVIEW
PETE THE KITTY'S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL
by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

- BOOK REVIEW
I LOVE PETE THE KITTY
by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

- BOOK REVIEW
TOOL SCHOOL
by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)