With frostbitten friends and witty word sets, this is a freezerful of fun.
Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast become action-adventure stars recruited to track down the villain who has frozen the fridge.
In this third installment, a killer frost has blanketed the fridge foodscape. A tall stranger, Agent Asparagus, comes to town, wielding a Fridge Bureau of Investigation badge, and enlists the aid of the two breakfast royals to find the culprit. Readers are quickly thrown into the arctic action, with kidnappings, a trek into enemy territory, double-crossings, and revenge. Pancake and French Toast seem doomed when a surprising new hero swings to the rescue. Whereas previous installments reveled in the magical refrigerator landscape, Kearney’s illustrations focus here on the animated range of emotions on pastry and Popsicles. Angry bananas? Check. Screaming fruit bars? Legions. The syncopated and clever rhyming couplets keep the pace moving at a neat clip. The vibrant characters are drawn with pencil, digitally colorized, and placed over a muted background, which causes the action to pop. Kindness, a recurring message in this series, returns in a teachable moment, with a confession and an apology breaking the ice. Sometimes a cold shoulder may be a cry for friendship. At the end, a vertical gatefold reveals a delightful wintry wonderland where edible friends and former foes play in the snow.
With frostbitten friends and witty word sets, this is a freezerful of fun. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2811-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
These reindeer games are a bit tired but, given the series’ popularity, should have a large, ready-made audience.
The How to Catch A… crew try for Comet.
Having already failed to nab a Halloween witch, the Easter Bunny, a turkey, a leprechaun, the Tooth Fairy, and over a dozen other iconic trophies in previous episodes of this bestselling series, one would think the racially diverse gaggle of children in Elkerton’s moonlit, wintry scenes would be flagging…but no, here they lay out snares ranging from a loop of garland to an igloo baited with reindeer moss to an enticing candy cane maze, all in hopes of snagging one of Santa’s reindeer while he’s busy delivering presents. Infused with pop culture–based Christmas cheer (“Now I’ve already seen the shelf with the elf”), Comet prances past the traps until it’s time to gather up the kids, most of whom look terrified, for a group snapshot with the other reindeer and then climb back into harness: “This was a great stop but a few million to go / Christmas Eve must continue with style!” Though festive, the verse feels trite and unlikely to entice youngsters. A sprinkling of “True Facts About Reindeer” (“They live in the tundra, where they have friends like the arctic bunny”) wrap up this celebration of the predatory spirit. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
These reindeer games are a bit tired but, given the series’ popularity, should have a large, ready-made audience. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 9781728276137
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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