Fans of Beatrix Potter will love this enchanting Christmas tale.
Woodland animals out for a walk find a surprise hidden in the snow.
Three rabbits, Kip, Wally, and Agnes, and their friends Bella and Bob, twin mice with a habit of speaking together, debate whether Kip heard someone whisper that it was lost. Readers are brought right into the action with the opening words “ ‘I am not making it up,’ said Kip” in this story told completely through dialogue. The friends dig through snow to find a “freezy-frozen” teddy bear. They very sensibly take him in a wagon to the home of a real-life bear named Arthur, overcoming his grumpiness with a jar of honey. Arthur tries to help them with their “ ‘we-don’t-know-what-to-do’ question.” The wise Arthur recognizes that, sadly, “on the day before Christmas, a child is without his or her beloved bear.” They do their best to patch up the disheveled teddy bear with a button eye, a green sweater, and a red ribbon. Enlisting the help of their bird friends, they find the girl who lost her teddy. From cheery endpapers strewn with colorful berries to delicately painted woodland scenes, this book is gorgeously designed. Images of animals, trees, and homey items wind their ways in and out of insets, resembling the views framed by the window the girl (light-skinned, with straight, brown hair) looks out.
Fans of Beatrix Potter will love this enchanting Christmas tale. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-988-8341-52-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school...
The familiar theme of the challenges facing a new kid in town is given an original treatment by photographer Border in this book of photos of three-dimensional objects in a simple modeled landscape.
Peanut Butter is represented by a slice of white bread spread with the popular condiment. The other characters in the story—a hamburger with a pair of hot dogs in tow, a bowl of alphabet soup, a meatball jumping a rope of spaghetti, a carton of French fries and a pink cupcake—are represented by skillfully crafted models of these foods, anthropomorphized using simple wire construction. Rejected by each character in turn in his search for playmates, Peanut Butter discovers in the end that Jelly is his true match (not Cupcake, as the title suggests), perhaps because she is the only one who looks like him, being a slice of white bread spread with jelly. The friendly foods end up happily playing soccer together. Some parents may have trouble with the unabashedly happy depiction of carbs and American junk food (no carrots or celery sticks in this landscape), and others may find themselves troubled by the implication that friendship across difference is impossible.
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school experiences. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16773-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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
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