A sweet tribute to youthful creativity.
A child and a toy elephant enjoy a blissful day, fueled by imagination.
A bouncy pachyderm leaps into curly-haired Ella’s bed one morning. Ella dubs the newcomer Lavender, and they proceed to eat pancakes, clean up, and set out for the day. Though they’re both eager to play, Ella laments, “I need to stay tidy, as clean as can be. Mommy is hosting an afternoon tea.” So Lavender proposes “a leisurely stroll.” Despite the best of intentions, they both end up playing hide-and-seek among the trees, having a garden hose water battle, and making mud pies—which leaves them both a soggy mess. Mommy ultimately spots and gently chides them. After baths for both (Lavender, back to his toy form, is placed in the washing machine), it’s time for tea and, eventually, bed. Relying predominantly on shades of pink and purple and depicting her characters with cherubic features, Farb effectively evokes an idyllic suburban setting, from the well-ordered garden to the prim and proper tea party. Lavender changes shape regularly, emphasizing the creative power of make-believe; readers who don’t pay close attention to the title page (which depicts the elephant as a toy sitting on Ella’s windowsill) may be briefly confused by his transformations. Treading familiar territory, Peugh makes use of upbeat rhyming text that pairs well with the artwork. Ella is tan-skinned and rosy-cheeked; Mommy is slightly lighter-skinned.
A sweet tribute to youthful creativity. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781962269230
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flashlight Press
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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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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
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