To quote the strangest little fellow ever to star in its own Christmas picture book: “Joy.”
Everyone’s favorite multi-eyed forest denizen returns with abundant presents (we just hope you like sticks).
Having shared an incredible love of nature and life itself in Stickler Loves the World (2023), the titular hero—a rotund creature with sticklike limbs and hair—knows precisely what to get everyone for Christmas. Taking on a role that’s usually filled by Santa, Stickler climbs astride Judy, a reindeer with treelike antlers, and delivers a Hop-Higher Stick to Rabbit, an Idea Stick to Crow, and an In-a-Pear-Tree Stick to Partridge (who’s oblivious to the “Twelve Days of Christmas” reference). Upon encountering Doug-the-Fir, Stickler discovers that the introverted tree has been unwillingly trimmed and bedecked in a truly flashy manner. How can Stickler avert attention from shy Doug? Let us simply say that Stickler knows how to bring the glam when necessary. Smith leans hard into the oddest elements of the book (“It was a weird Christmas”), and readers wouldn’t have it any other way. Stickler’s love and care for its friends are oddly touching—in a sea of more saccharine winter holiday selections, this wildly funny, whimsical story stands out in all the best ways. Employing an eclectic combination of materials both traditional (gesso, oil, cold wax on canvas) and digital, Smith creates sweetly surreal visuals. Readers will chuckle at the instructions on the publication page explaining how to “Be a Stickler.”
To quote the strangest little fellow ever to star in its own Christmas picture book: “Joy.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593815281
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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