The text may run to just a few words per page, but the pictures in this heavily populated outing invite lingering as dozens of European nursery rhyme and folktale characters gather to prepare a huge cake, and then wheel it down the road to the house of a lucky birthday boy. Like Carol Jones’s Gingerbread Man (2002), the Jolly Postman series and the like, this becomes a test of cultural literacy, made even more challenging by the lack of identifying commentary: How many of these figures, rendered in Langley’s informal cartoons as young-looking folks and animals in antique costume, are recognizable? Is that the Knave of Hearts? There’s Bo Peep, searching for her sheep on one page, and finding them on the next. That whiskered officer must be the Grand Old Duke of York, and look, there’s the Gingerbread Boy riding one of a trio of little pigs. All gather at last to wish the starry-eyed lad a “Happy, Happy Birthday!” as he makes ready to blow out the candles. With guests like these, how could it be otherwise? (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-439-68329-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like marshmallow on top of caramel.
Little Bear loves everything about Christmas, but there’s one thing he loves even more.
The Bear household is busily getting ready for Christmas. Mommy Bear wraps and bakes; Daddy Bear brings home a humongous tree; Little Bear exults in it all. With each new Christmas tradition that’s introduced, from opening Christmas cards to receiving carolers, Little Bear sings a song that celebrates it. “I love ornaments, and garland, and lights on a string, / candy canes, stockings—and all of the things / that make Christmas perfect—oh, yes, I do! / But the thing that I love more than Christmas is—” But before Little Bear can complete his rhyme, each time he is interrupted by a new element of Christmas to celebrate. Since that terminal rhyme is always set up with one that ends with an “oo” sound, readers will not be surprised in the least when Mommy and Daddy interrupt him one last time with an emphatic “YOU!” It’s all so uber-idealized readers may find themselves gagging on the syrup—it even seems to get at Hattie: Daddy Bear’s smug “What an exceedingly talented family we are” has a whiff of irony to it. Warnes’ cartoon bears inhabit a cozy, middle-class home; while the carolers are clothed, the Bear family is not, but readers may notice a white marking on Mommy Bear’s chest where a string of pearls might rest.
Like marshmallow on top of caramel. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-208-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
Patricelli, author of several board books, graduates prematurely from cardboard to paper pages for this cheery birthday monologue narrated by a toddler who gets more play mileage out of a big box than the puppy it holds. Using bright, appealingly smudged colors and very simple, boldly outlined shapes, she depicts a diaper-clad child unwrapping the carton, hugging it in delight, then, accompanied by the puppy soon discovered inside, transforming it into an airplane, a ship and a robot before finally nestling down inside for a nap. The narrative voice is older than the child in the pictures, and next to Antoinette Portis’s Not a Box (2006), and several other takes on the familiar premise, this lacks the emotional range allowed by a longer format. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-7636-2825-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
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