Appealingly strange, laugh-out-loud funny, and guaranteed to have children clamoring for more.
An odd visitor disrupts a household’s morning routine.
A fairly ordinary, pale-skinned family—three children, no-nonsense Mummy, and stubble-faced Daddy—are eating breakfast when there’s a knock at the door. Mummy senses trouble: “If it’s a naughty-looking little gnome with a magical-looking hat…whatever you do…don’t let him in!” Daddy doesn’t listen, and a wiry, stick figure–like fellow sporting an oversize purple cone atop his head scurries in and dances a jig on their table. Mummy tosses him unceremoniously out the window, but he’s far from done disrupting their morning. A spell book tumbles down the chimney, a child reads from it (despite Mummy’s warning!), and everything in the house turns into food—including Daddy and two of the kids! (“Look, just whatever you do, don’t start eating yourselves,” Mummy says—advice that that not everyone heeds). The puzzled group chases the gnome into a hurly-burly of colorful chaos, hoping to resolve their situation. The wacky challenges precipitated by an uninvited guest recall the Cat in the Hat’s escalatory antics, but Pearson perfectly incorporates his own visual vocabulary of playfully peculiar domesticity—so integral to his Hilda series—into this busy, vibrant picture book. Kids will thrill at the increasing absurdity of the family’s situation, while caregivers will appreciate the parents’ attempts to hold things together amid the turmoil and clean up the mess when the party is over.
Appealingly strange, laugh-out-loud funny, and guaranteed to have children clamoring for more. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9781774884447
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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