Kids with a taste for gross-out humor will laugh themselves sick. A real stinker, in the best possible sense.
Who stole the World Famous Rotten Egg? Something about this theft smells fishy (not to mention stinky, icky, and gross!).
Disaster strikes on opening day of the Museum of Very Bad Smells. Who took the museum’s most anticipated exhibit? Was it Herman, the pickled herring, or Pickles, the wet dog? Was it Beetle, the dung artist, or TJ, the mouse with a foul past? Or was it you? One of the museum’s workers, an adorable, uniform-clad hamster, leads the other characters—and readers—on a zany chase through the super-smelly exhibits to sniff out the culprit. Along the way, they encounter disgusting smells sure to have kids dissolving into fits of giggles, from farts to barf to old sneakers to stinky cheese. Readers will be even more delighted to experience some of these odors for themselves, as several pages feature scratch ’n’ sniff patches. With cartoon flair, the story is told entirely through speech bubbles and energetic visuals. Watching the characters zip around the museum keeps the action speeding forward and heightens the suspense. Our hamster hero intermittently breaks the fourth wall to invite readers to help solve the mystery. This tale is engaging, fast-paced, and full of nonstop potty humor—even reluctant readers will find it hard to resist.
Kids with a taste for gross-out humor will laugh themselves sick. A real stinker, in the best possible sense. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780063271449
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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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