A fun, layered work with a gentle message about learning artistic flexibility.
A young girl is poised to paint, but she can’t find her heirloom paintbrush in Hawthorne’s illustrated children’s book.
There are many words to describe Gloria B. Wilson: enthusiastic, adventurous, dedicated, and most of all, artistic. She loves to paint scenes from her everyday life with her favorite brush, which has been passed down by female painters in her family for several generations. Without it, she doesn’t feel that she can make art at all. One day, Gloria is ready to complete her at-home art gallery when she realizes she’s lost the heirloom art tool: “How in the WORLD am I going to create my art and finish my gallery if I don’t have my favorite paintbrush?” she frets. It isn’t long until she concocts a plan to take her trusty camera and her pet dog (named Dog) around town, retracing her steps as she searches for the lost item. She investigates a bird’s nest, a hill, and a marina; as she explores, young readers will enjoy spotting the paintbrush in illustrator Van Fossan’s painterly backgrounds, always just beyond Gloria’s notice. It may be hidden in a bird’s nest, for example, or in the clutches of a shiny red crab. The protagonist’s quest ends unexpectedly with a touch of tongue-in-cheek humor that hints that her adventures aren’t over yet. She effectively learns that a lot of good can come from a bad situation and that her artistic powers are not diminished by the lack of her usual tool. This is a story that relies heavily on the illustrations, which feature plot points that the text doesn’t, such as Gloria’s losing the paintbrush because she was playing fetch with Dog. Van Fossan’s cartoon art style echoes that of a child’s with some refinements, much like Gloria’s own art. Gloria is depicted with brown skin; the few other human characters, in a photo or in person, have a range of skin tones.
A fun, layered work with a gentle message about learning artistic flexibility.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781960492029
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Three Plus One Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.
After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9780063436121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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
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