A funny spin on a classic song and emotion: loneliness.
The traditional kids’ gross-out song gets an appetizing makeover.
“Nobody loves me,” says a miserable-looking yellow duck who is wearing a party hat and sitting alone before a birthday cake. This opening salvo is followed by an equally gloomy lament from a gray sheep who is eating solo while four other sheep enjoy a picnic: “Everybody hates me.” The duck and the sheep, neither of whom knows the other exists, feel so sorry for themselves that each comes to the same grim decision: “I guess I’ll go eat / worms.” Independently, they imagine that ingesting worms (the “free range,” “organic-dirt fed,” fruity-colored kind that come from a can) will lead to great things: The duck will become a dance-floor dynamo with worm dance partners, and the sheep will become a gourmand (or perhaps a chef) surrounded by worm-based delicacies. But in the real world, they still have a problem to solve: loneliness. If only each animal could find a friend. The book works because the text doesn’t depend on readers’ familiarity with the original song and also because Liu’s homespun lines are catchy and snappy (“Worms roasted, worms filleted, / worms toasted, worms sautéed— / I’ll have worms three meals a day!”). The art, rendered in watercolor and digital tools, has the crisp, blocky look of cut-paper collage and is powered by the most delicious of palettes: candy pinks, chocolate browns, and the full gamut of gummy-worm colors.
A funny spin on a classic song and emotion: loneliness. (recipe for Worms in Dirt) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9781250359506
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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
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