Festive but its message of kindness feels overshadowed by an emphasis on gifts.
A hardworking mother makes Yuletide magic for her three children.
The book’s young narrator notices that the signs of winter and Christmas are everywhere: snow, twinkling lights, glowing Santas. Momma works six days a week at the factory, but she prepares breakfast prior to leaving and returns home “just before our tummies growl for dinner.” Although Momma isn’t working on Christmas Eve, she goes out that morning. Meanwhile the protagonist and two siblings watch cartoons, craft paper snowflakes, and play in the snow. As night falls, Momma arrives with a large bag of thoughtful gifts to be enjoyed by all; she later explains that she got them from “a place where kind strangers donate toys for kids.” The protagonist gently transforms the somber revelation into appreciation: “I like the idea that there are good people in the world…and they choose to help.” Despite these nods to “good people,” too much of Yang’s narrative feels centered on material things—the neighborhood kids crowding around a Christmas gift catalog at the bus stop, the protagonist impressing a school friend with a list of Christmas gifts received. That the children never even make a card for Momma is a clumsy misstep. Tam works hard to visually capture the Christmas spirit—wreaths and candy canes, lively decorations, resplendent Christmas cactus blooms. The protagonist’s family is cued Southeast Asian, enjoying steaming bowls of homemade pho; additional characters are diverse.
Festive but its message of kindness feels overshadowed by an emphasis on gifts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217006304
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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