Deeply familiar but infused with 21st-century smarts; expect cries for repeated reads.
Two acclaimed creators retell a fairy-tale classic.
Employing a conversational style, Barnett offers a fresh and immensely entertaining take on an old story, much as he did with The Three Billy Goats Gruff, illustrated by Jon Klassen (2022). A miller (“a nice enough guy, but he had a big mouth”) encounters the king and, seeking to impress him, falsely claims that his daughter can spin straw into gold. What follows is the classic story, replete with spinning wheels and small men who make clandestine deals with the desperate for their offspring. While never diverging from the original, Barnett nevertheless allows his miller’s daughter, if not a name (on purpose, it turns out), then hobbies like “whittling sticks and catching tadpoles with her bare hands.” This miller’s daughter is still caught in the machinations of the men around her, but Barnett demonstrates that her love of the woods is key to her defeating Rumpelstiltskin. His sly retelling is perfectly complemented by art that at times resembles classical portraiture. Ellis also harkens back to fairy-tale images of yore with both lushly illustrated gouache pictures and small interstitial black-and-white spot art. Characters present white.
Deeply familiar but infused with 21st-century smarts; expect cries for repeated reads. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781338673852
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Comprehension sacrificed in the name of goofiness.
An epic quest to save the day begins with an unlikely hero.
A folded paper fortune teller game discovers that she’s been abandoned on the school playground before anyone got a chance to use her. After she meets up with a partially eaten chip named (you guessed it) Chip, the two set off to return an errant bolt to a slide’s ladder. Along the way, they encounter various foes—a squirrel, a basketball, a cloud—each of whom is defeated as Forty tells them a ridiculous fortune (“Your bottom will turn into balloons and you will float away!”) that inexplicably becomes true. By the end, it’s clear that “Forty” doesn’t stand for “Fortune Teller” but for “Fortitude,” and the tale concludes with a tacked-on message about how everyone can write their own fortunes. Frankly, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Throughout, Daywalt throws a wide variety of ideas onto the page with only the most tenuous strings of connection keeping the story together. Thematically, the book resembles his The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors (2017), illustrated by Adam Rex, yet it lacks that work’s cohesive and comprehensible storytelling, raising more questions than it answers. Cornell’s lively, comic book–style art tries in vain to wrestle Daywalt’s writing into some semblance of order.
Comprehension sacrificed in the name of goofiness. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593691465
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Powered by whimsy and nostalgia, a doggone adorable tale of superheroes transforming the world for the better.
Can flying puppies, fueled by people’s hugs, save the world from gloom?
Light-skinned Snarly McBummerpants is busy sending out Mopey Smokes (evil-looking dark brown clouds) from his volcano on the Island of Woe to create a sad state of affairs. But the caped puppies, each equipped with a rocket and hailing from “the outer reaches of NOT-FROM-HERE,” use their abilities to conquer the morose McBummerpants and bring happiness back to everyone’s lives. The meticulously detailed illustrations carry the story, dark colors turning to rainbow hues and frowns turning to smiles. From Big Brad to Tiny Brad, the smallest, most powerful puppy, who “[licks] a kiss right on the tip of Snarly McBummerpants’s nose,” these absolutely endearing pooches elicit a universal “AWWWWWWWWWW!” from all who encounter them. Joyce’s witty illustrations depict diverse children and adults who appear to hail from different decades. Two teenagers wear the bobby socks and saddle shoes of the 1940s and ’50s and sit atop a retro soda cooler. Other kids ride the skateboards of a later era. Laurel and Hardy, classic movie performers who may need introduction, are amusingly pictured as bullies turned florists (a little odd, since only Hardy bullied Laurel). Even McBummerpants seems reminiscent of an old-time movie villain. The text is less inventive than the pictures, but the message of good over evil is always timely.
Powered by whimsy and nostalgia, a doggone adorable tale of superheroes transforming the world for the better. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781665961332
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
© 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.
