A unique retelling of the Nativity that will surprise and delight.
A little star overcomes her fear and learns to embrace change.
It’s almost Holy Night, and Maker wants everyone—the planets, the stars, and Moon—to play a part. Little Star, who shines gently on newborn lambs, fears big changes are in store, and whenever Maker asks for volunteers for different tasks, she declines. Maker tells Little Star to be ready—she will have a special role. On Holy Night, everyone performs their roles brilliantly. Little Star joins in the shining chorus and sees that it’s not so hard after all. When Maker sends everyone off to Bethlehem, Little Star gathers her courage and sets off. On the edge of town, she stops at a stable where a Baby cries. She looks into his eyes and recognizes the Maker. Little Star stays by the stable, her gentle light soothing the newborn king as strangers come from all around. When she rejoins the celestial celebration, she sees that although everything has changed, Maker remains the same. Perkins’ touching tale makes the story of Christmas new while weaving in the positive message of trusting the constancy of Maker in the face of change. Le’s captivating jewel-toned illustrations and Perkins’ measured unspooling of story will charm readers and make them excited to read on. The Holy Family has brown skin. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique retelling of the Nativity that will surprise and delight. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593578049
Page Count: 40
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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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