A Yuletide romp suffused with magic and good feeling.
The days leading up to Christmas are always full of adventure for Dasher the reindeer—and this year is no exception.
While gazing up at the northern lights, Dasher encounters a polar bear named George who marvels at her flying abilities and wishes he could soar through the wintery air, too. Alas, Dasher’s efforts to help George harness Christmas magic and take flight don’t go well. Tavares’ full-bleed digital art captures one of his failed attempts—one that ends with a dramatic splash “face-first into the icy water.” George is good-natured about the disappointment (“I suppose these four paws belong right here in the snow”), but Dasher later tells her mother that she wishes she could have taught her new friend to fly. As the story unfolds, colorful, expansive skyscapes support the central theme of flight, though overly large, white text boxes superimposed on the pictures somewhat undermine the visual power of the beautiful polar setting. Ultimately, light-skinned Santa Claus is the one who makes George’s Christmas wish come true—by inviting him for a ride in the sleigh once all the presents have been delivered. George is thrilled (“Exhilarating!” “Positively unforgettable!”), and Dasher’s glad to have shared in the moment.
A Yuletide romp suffused with magic and good feeling. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781536236316
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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