An enjoyably spooky outing starring a team of diminutive, endlessly inventive veggies.
Baker’s lively legumes return for a Halloween adventure.
In lightly rhyming text, an unseen narrator proposes costume ideas: “A wicked witch with a pointy hat, / a ghost, / a goblin, / or the witch’s cat? / A skeleton with a cane to tap. / Or a flying, flapping, vampire bat!” The suggestions continue, riffing on classic monsters, children’s stories like Peter Pan, and fairy-tale characters such as Rapunzel and Goldilocks. The peas could dress up as animals, Albert Einstein, or “a centipede with fifty friends— // that’s a hundred feet from end to end!” On several spreads, the peas are dwarfed by large-scale lettered phrases like “October 31.” Using ladders, they carve hulking pumpkins with saws, relying on slings and ropes to remove pulp and carrying seeds and harvested chunks away in wheelbarrows. Baker uses the peas’ roundness to their advantage when outfitting them in costumes; one masquerades as an “evil blue” eyeball, others as the planets Earth and Saturn. Many don headgear like flower bonnets or the Statue of Liberty’s crown. A poignant bit of text also gently suggests that eschewing costumes is just fine, too: “Or be yourself… // a little green pea!” Jack-o’-lanterns glow yellow and orange against dark blue-violet spreads as the costumed, treat-seeking peas hit the neighborhood on Halloween night.
An enjoyably spooky outing starring a team of diminutive, endlessly inventive veggies. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665940269
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property.
Since a reformed Grinch is hardly any fun, this follow-up Grinches him up once more.
Those seeking more of the same, prepare to receive precisely that. Christmas is coming (again!), and the Grinch can hardly wait. He’s been patient all year, and now he can finally show the Whos down in Who-ville how much he’s changed. When the Grinch learns of a tree-decorating contest, he figures that if he wins, it’ll prove he truly has the Christmas spirit. He throws himself into the task, but when it comes time to judge the trees, the Grinch is horrified to discover that he’s received only the second-place trophy. Can Cindy-Lou Who find the words to save the day? Replicating many of the original beats and wordplay of the original, this tale feels like less a sequel and more like a vaguely rewritten variation. Meanwhile, Ruiz’s art seeks to bridge the gap between the animated Chuck Jones version of the Grinch and the one depicted in the original book. This thankless task results in a strange uncanny valley between Seuss and Jones but does allow the artist a chance to colorize everything and lend some racial diversity to the Who population (Cindy-Lou is light-skinned). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593563168
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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