Utterly charming.
Following their eponymous opening adventure (2016), unflappable Japanese twins Chirri and Chirra return for another serene, sylvan outing.
It begins when they ride their bikes into a patch of tall grass, shrinking to the size of insects as they do. When they emerge, they find themselves dwarfed by sprigs of white clover, from which a bumblebee collects honey in two large baggies. They follow it to its nest in a hillside, peeking in through a hexagonal window to a charming kitchen in which the bee and her companion make honey sponge cake that they share with the girls. They then follow a flower chafer to its house, where the beetle gives them “freshly squeezed mixed-leaf juice with yumberry fruit and raspberry pulp.” Off they go again, bells ringing “dring-dring,” after a friendly lizard, who invites them in to make candy. The idyll, depicted in soft, smudgy colors that have the look of lithographs, plays out in cozy, single-page illustrations in a slightly smaller-than-typical trim. There is no sense of danger or even discontent, just a warm, green world that opens itself up to the twins—and when they re-emerge by their house in the firefly-lit twilight to find their candy suddenly gone, there are no tears. Whether readers decide it’s all imaginary or not is irrelevant; they will love every moment, regardless.
Utterly charming. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59270-225-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming mix of science lesson and winsome storytelling.
The perky red squirrel introduced in The Leaf Thief (2020) is confused.
Bird and Squirrel both love summer, but when Bird calls out a cheery “Night night,” Squirrel, yawning himself, is incredulous: “BEDTIME? It can’t be! The sun’s still up, look!” Naturally there’s a lot more bewilderment ahead. Some weeks later, Squirrel is alarmed to see it’s dark at toothbrushing time. In skittish Squirrel’s view, a “sun thief”—who also made an odd “hoo” sound the other night—is responsible. Bird explains that as summer goes on, the sun sets earlier and earlier each night and reassures Squirrel that owls cry “hoo.” But the very next evening, at bathtime, Squirrel shines a bright light into the dark, sees something looming, and screams that the sun thief has “crashed into my tree!” Patient Bird, roused from slumber, points out that it’s just Bat. But “why was she flapping about in the dark?” Now Bird explains what nocturnal means. Once again, Squirrel is amusingly slow on the uptake, allowing readers to feel superior as Hemming gently folds in some science. Slater’s witty illustrations also lighten the lessons: Bird hangs a tiny T-shirt and shorts on a diminutive laundry line and sleeps tucked into a cozy repurposed sardine can, where a scared Squirrel attempts to squeeze in; Squirrel sports a pink bath towel and shower cap; a real thief quietly makes off with a couple of items (though Squirrel and Bird remain blissfully unaware).
A charming mix of science lesson and winsome storytelling. (info on light changes and diurnal/nocturnal) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464258183
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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