A charming tale that portrays bicultural kindness.
Two girls forge a strong connection during two gift-giving holidays in this debut picture book.
One year, the Muslim holiday Eid and Christmas coincide. Blond-haired Eva’s school honors Christmas by performing A Christmas Carol for an orphanage. Brown-haired Aya’s school celebrates Eid by inviting orphans to have cake and lemonade. Both girls are pleased with what they’ve shared. The next day, the two girls go to the same toy store and get stuck together in an elevator. To help the girls focus on something less scary, Eva invents a game where both guess each other’s presents. But when they finally leave the elevator, the girls rethink their gifts when they remember the orphans and decide to give their presents to others instead. Aya donates hers to a church’s orphanage, and Eva offers hers to an orphanage run by a mosque. Elzein uses simple sentences to convey the story, focusing on the two girls’ budding friendship rather than bogging down the tale with details behind each holiday. The message of compassion and giving, especially across cultural lines, comes through clearly in accessible language for independent and lap readers. Hasan uses kid-friendly digital art to depict both girls as distinct members of their own ethnic groups, and Aya’s mother wears a hijab. (Both religious leaders are men.) Though the story’s location is never revealed, the blooming trees and flowers and an amusement park ride indicate a warm-winter (or Southern Hemisphere) site.
A charming tale that portrays bicultural kindness.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-57-505527-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
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