Charming resource for parents looking for a way to allow their kids to celebrate Halloween without becoming indebted to the...
A debut Halloween picture book that ends with a tricky treat.
How can families celebrate Halloween without making it all about the candy? Ricker’s book is designed to help transform Halloween by shifting its focus, but it requires parents to be in cahoots with the author, so adult readers should know how the book works before reading it to young ones. Here’s how it goes: One Halloween night, a young boy named Holden dresses as a knight and heads out trick-or-treating. He encounters the Sugar Witch, who needs candy to build her sugar castle. She’s trying to trick-or-treat, but all the homeowners turn her away because she’s too big. She asks Holden to share his candy, knowing he won’t want to. Afraid she’ll take it, he eats himself sick even before he’s done trick-or-treating. Finally, the Sugar Witch offers him a deal, which isn’t explained until the book’s end. He apparently agrees, since she gives him a magic box that he takes home. Just before going to sleep, he dumps all his candy except five pieces into the box. In the morning, he awakens to a treat in the box—a toy knight—and the knowledge that he’s helped the Sugar Witch build her sugar castle. He keeps using the box, and each year, he receives a toy in trade for his candy. On the final page, the narrator invites readers to put their candy in a box or bowl and leave it for the Sugar Witch, saving just a few pieces for themselves. The narrator suggests that the Sugar Witch may visit readers, just as she visited Holden, bringing them treats in exchange for their candy. As a reading experience, the book has its ups and downs. As the appealing digital illustrations, which feature a spooky nighttime sky, help keep the tale moving, the language can be rich and evocative—“clanged and clamored”; “tripped over a twisty twig.” Yet some of the sentences are too long for young readers: The single sentence on the second page of text is 53 words. Parents who are prepared are likely to enjoy their children’s responses, but those who don’t grasp the book’s participatory premise may feel tricked by what children could interpret as a promise of another Halloween treat.
Charming resource for parents looking for a way to allow their kids to celebrate Halloween without becoming indebted to the dentist.Pub Date: April 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1480806900
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
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A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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