A delightful tale of cooperation and compassion.
A couple of turtles lead the charge to return sea stars to water in Welton’s illustrated children’s book.
On a beautiful night, lit by a full moon, clouds roll in, bringing with them a great storm. Huge waves crash onto the seashore. When morning comes and the storm has passed, a group of sea stars find themselves trapped by kelp on a sandy beach. Murtle and Max, a couple of royal—and possibly magical—turtles notice the starfish calling for help. The benevolent turtles, wearing golden crowns, waste no time answering the call: “Birds bring a carpet from the sky. / ‘Hop on, sea stars, get set to fly.’ // The birds each grab a carpet string. / ‘Well, now you've got our wings,’ they sing.” Owls, otters, ducks, and dolphins join the rescue effort. Eventually, thanks to the turtles and their sea-dwelling friends, the sea stars are returned safely to the water. Pham’s vivid, full-page cartoon illustrations embellish the narrative with enchanting details: Max, the larger of the two turtles, wields a scepter with a golden star at the tip; when he waves it, gold and pink ribbons waft through the air, helping the rescue effort along. The sea is rendered in brilliant blues, greens, and white frothy waves and bubbles, illuminated by shards of sunlight, effectively capturing the motion of waves and tides. The story is related in poetry; most pages contain a single rhyming couplet written in tetrameter, giving the story a charming singsong quality. The sparseness of the text is one of the book’s strengths, as it leaves space for the expressive images. For example, as the rescue nears a close, the illustration shows a menagerie of sea creatures and birds, united and proud, all gently carrying the sea stars home, and the text simply reads: “Don't stop until our work is done— / Make a difference to each one!” The exciting, collaborative rescue operation is bookended by moments of calm, ending with a celebration.
A delightful tale of cooperation and compassion.Pub Date: April 10, 2025
ISBN: 9798899000027
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Bookfox Press
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
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