A lesson for the ages and love across generations.
A Black girl bonds with her great-grandmother, who’s celebrating her 100th birthday.
Dressed in a flowing yellow dress, with beads ornamenting her braids, young Jasmine hops in the car before the sun’s even risen, and she and Papa set out to visit Great-Grandma Caroline, whom Jasmine’s never met. The trip is long, but as Jasmine sits in a booster seat in the back seat, right next to her packed lunch and her floppy-eared dog, Puddles, Papa plays his favorite songs, and Jasmine reflects earnestly on how her great-grandmother’s 100th birthday means she’s also lived a long life—longer than Jasmine’s goldfish or her hamster or Puddles. Upon their arrival, Great-Grandma Caroline, ensconced in her rocking chair, welcomes her “baby girl” with a hug (“My birthday wish just came true”). She poignantly puts 100 years of life into perspective as they skip stones over the pond. According to Great-Grandma Caroline, patience, determination, and faith have been the secrets to her longevity, and her great-granddaughter relies on those same attributes as she finally gets the hang of skipping stones; the book closes with other members of Jasmine’s extended family gathering as Great-Grandma Caroline blows out the candles on her cake. Langley’s first-person narration conveys Jasmine’s youthful curiosity about her great-grandmother, while Grooms’ detailed digital art brims with familial warmth.
A lesson for the ages and love across generations. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781665934725
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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