A fine first caper for budding fans of mystery, monkeys, or magic.
Who will be the Magician of the Year? Will honesty or treachery win the day?
Oscar the monkey magician is flattered to be nominated by the readers of Magic Monthly for the title of Magician of the Year. Goateed rival Milton is nominated too. Worried that Oscar will beat him and thereby deprive him of a perfect set of trophies, Milton vows to trick Oscar and ruin his performances. But every prank Milton tries backfires, and audiences think Oscar is even more magnificent than ever. Milton decides to embarrass Oscar by hypnotizing him into stealing the priceless Blue Diamond Necklace. Oscar’s caught, but he convinces Mayday the detective to look deeper into the case. When Mayday too is trapped by Milton’s hypnotic monocle, it’s a good thing officers Charlie and Joe are on the case too! Porter’s characters from The Thunderbolt Express (2013) return in this tale of monkey mystery and malfeasance. The current tale parallels the previous in that this too includes a crocodile-infested river (well, a jazz band of crocodiles). Back too are Porter’s big-eyed monkeys in their spiffy suits and disguises, featured in brightly colored, full-bleed illustrations painted on pine.
A fine first caper for budding fans of mystery, monkeys, or magic. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-57061-929-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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
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BOOK REVIEW
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