A meditation on memory, growth, and resilience that trusts young readers with difficult emotions.
Ruby the elephant—introduced in Applegate’s Newbery Medal–winning The One and Only Ivan (2012)—makes her picture-book debut.
Told entirely in Ruby’s voice, the story centers on the young pachyderm’s uncertainties around her Tuskday ceremony: a rite of passage that celebrates the appearance of an elephant’s front teeth. In the first-person narration, Ruby’s feelings—her anxieties about her emerging tusks, her traumatic memories of poachers, and her fears about growing up—all feel immediate. Judge’s watercolor illustrations are extraordinary, capturing the emotional landscape of elephant life through body language and expressive eyes. Daytime scenes at the sanctuary where Ruby lives are bathed in warm golds and greens; vignettes focus on some of her more intimate moments. A particularly stunning nighttime spread depicts Ruby gazing at a luminous moon, surrounded by her herd’s protective circle—the deep blues and silvery whites creating a sanctuary of light against darkness that mirrors the book’s central theme. The vertical lines of the trunks and soft-edged, massive elephant forms work together to create a sense of visual calm and safety, grounding Ruby’s emotional journey. Readers will organically absorb facts about tusks, mud baths, and herd behavior while also confronting deeper fears about loss and belonging. Applegate’s text may be a bit dense for the youngest listeners, but it serves as an effective introduction to the characters from her One and Only novels.
A meditation on memory, growth, and resilience that trusts young readers with difficult emotions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9780063357785
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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
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