A better message than delivery.
A mouse gets his tail caught and asks for help.
In “the most beautiful meadow in all the land,” mouse Desmond follows the same daily routine. He wakes in the morning, plays all day, and goes to sleep in the evening. But one night, Desmond’s schedule is thrown for a loop when he wakes early to find his tail stuck under a “HUGE boulder.” He tries to push on the boulder. He tries to tug on his tail. Neither effort frees him, so Desmond reaches out to nearby animals. The giraffe reveals that it’s not a boulder but a sleeping elephant. Yet rather than help, the giraffe lets “sleeping elephants lie” and refuses to get into it. When a gazelle walks by, Desmond receives the same, neutral response. Desmond finally gets the help he needs when another mouse comes by, and that mouse brings more mice. The mouse collective eventually gets the elephant to budge, setting Desmond free. Inspired by a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this parable presents a situation of injustice and demonstrates that neutrality actually takes the side of the oppressor. Meyer embellishes Tutu’s metaphor, adding lengthy dialogue and description as well as the syrupy opening. Fam’s child-friendly watercolors make the best of the small trim size, though the level of detail is somewhat inconsistent, nature scenes appearing more accomplished than some of the character stylings.
A better message than delivery. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-55896-866-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Skinner House
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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