From New Zealand, an inventive and delightful tale that evokes Thumbelina, the Borrowers, and other beloved wee characters.
When a very tiny woman needs a new coat, she gets lots of practical help.
She is determined to make the coat but needs tools and supplies. Autumn trees shed their beautiful leaves to provide the coat’s cloth. A grey goose uses its beak as scissors to cut the leaves into body and sleeves. A porcupine generously offers a quill as needle. Thread comes from a horse’s mane, and wild weeds scatter seeds for buttons. When the coat is complete, it gives her warmth and comfort through cold and storm. With text constructed in a folkloric style, each interaction begins, on one double-page spread, “The tiny woman wanted a coat,” followed by the question of where to acquire a needed element. Each donation is offered on the subsequent double-page spread, accompanied by an italicized, expository refrain. “Rustle, rustle, rustle” say the leaves; “snip, snip, snip” goes the goose’s bill; and the porcupine’s quill is “sharp, sharp, sharp.” Young readers will have fun echoing the repetitive phrases throughout the tale, adding their own voices to the narration. The pale-skinned, redheaded protagonist is indeed tiny, depicted in Clarkson’s detailed illustrations as snail-sized, with plants, grasses, and the helpful animals towering over her. Sharp eyes will note the mushroom umbrella that shelters her and her coat from the rainstorm.
From New Zealand, an inventive and delightful tale that evokes Thumbelina, the Borrowers, and other beloved wee characters. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77657-342-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated.
Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.
Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!”
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665954785
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
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