A little patience and plenty of creativity result in a recipe for a yummy success!
The famous chef Pierre du Monstère and Grandmonster say, “A baker always rises to the occasion,” but will granddaughter Tillie?
Grandmonster makes the best desserts, like Key Slime Pie, Screech Cobbler, and Double-Sludge Brownies, and is teaching Tillie to bake. So when Dad announces that tomorrow is Grandmonster’s 247th birthday, Tillie decides to bake a Squirmin’ Chocolate Cake. “Two cups of frankenflour, one stick of booter, thirteen squirmy worms, a teaspoon of shaking powder.” The result is “magnifique!”—until Uncle Harry, unaware that the cake is for Grandmonster’s birthday, gobbles it up. In a hurry to whip up a second cake, Tillie makes a mess and plenty of mistakes. Her next cake squirms out of the kitchen, “through Slimes Square, past the Museum of Monster Art, and all the way to the edge of Tentacle Park.” Tillie is discouraged, but Dad offers some reassuring words. Tillie finds a way to save the day, incorporating her past culinary mistakes with some kitchen leftovers. The results may not be perfect, but, as Tillie and readers realize, that’s more than OK. Creative food names contain plenty of giggle-inducing puns, and the bright illustrations add to the fun. With her oversized head and tiny limbs and tail, Tillie is more endearing than grotesque, and the concoctions are disgustingly hilarious. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A little patience and plenty of creativity result in a recipe for a yummy success! (recipe for Chocolate Cherry Scaries) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781250828323
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
