A sweet friendship, lovingly and gently portrayed.
Kindhearted Little Hedgehog worries about his friends in the aftermath of a huge blizzard.
The latest effort by the prolific Butler finds Little Hedgehog contending with lots of snow. It’s the deepest and highest he’s ever seen, and he is exhausted after digging a path out of his house. On his way to check on his friend Mouse and her babies, he tumbles and slides into a very deep snowdrift, and no matter how hard he tries he can’t get out. He puts his red hat on his walking stick and waves it until Rabbit spots it and pulls him out. They join forces to check on Mouse, and each time they find themselves in another dangerous predicament, there’s another friend to help. Eventually, Little Hedgehog, Rabbit, Fox, and Badger all help Mouse dig out, and, carrying her babies in that indestructible red hat, they head for Badger’s warm house and a fine dinner. The prickly hero is loving, resourceful, brave, and compassionate, as is his circle of friends. Butler employs accessible language and syntax that, although a bit stiff, keeps the tale moving at a pace just right for its young audience, and all without sliding too close to whimsy and treacle. Macnaughton’s lovely, bright large-scale illustrations nicely capture the cute creatures’ charming personalities.
A sweet friendship, lovingly and gently portrayed. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58925-196-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
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