A sweet Christmas treat for little ones just getting used to a real story as well as their slightly older siblings.
Someone’s in the kitchen with Mrs. Claus, cooking up Christmas Eve goodies for the reindeer, Santa’s helpers and old St. Nick himself.
This lift-the-flap book has sturdy cardboard pages and a square format; it opens to double-page spreads with expansive scenes of Mrs. Claus in the kitchen. In this story, Mr. and Mrs. Claus are polar bears, and Santa’s helpers are animals such as a raccoon, a fox, squirrels and mice. Mrs. Claus, who seems to be an absent-minded sort of bear, keeps forgetting where she has stored the ingredients for the special treats she is baking. Each spread asks readers to find a missing item such as a jar of honey, chocolate chips or a bowl of popcorn. Lots of mice helpers are hiding under the flaps, sometimes aiding in the holiday preparations and sometimes digging into Christmas treats such as candy canes or nuts. The final page finds Mr. and Mrs. Claus wearing red-and-green–striped scarves that the busy animals have been knitting. Pleasant illustrations in watercolor and pencil show smiling bears and cheerful animals earnestly engaged in their Christmas Eve preparations.
A sweet Christmas treat for little ones just getting used to a real story as well as their slightly older siblings. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7736-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery.
A troop of cats traverse a spooky landscape as they make their way to a party hosted by ghosts.
Each double-page spread shows the felines’ encounters with the likes of an owl, jack-o’-lanterns or a bat. One or two of these creepy meetings may be too abstract for the youngest readers, as the cats hear eerie noises with no discernible source on the page. The text, which consists of one rhyming couplet per scene, mostly scans despite a couple of wobbles: “Five black cats get a bit of a scare / As the flip-flapping wings of a bat fill the air.” The sleek, slightly retro art, likely created using a computer, depicts the cats cavorting at night through a shadowy cityscape, the countryside and a haunted house; they may scare some toddlers and delight others. A brighter color palette would have given the project a friendlier, more universal appeal. Luckily, the well-lit, final party scene provides a playful conclusion.
For toddlers unafraid of typical Halloween imagery. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58925-611-8
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
All aboard for a spooktacularly sleepy ride!
The goodnight train is back for a not-so-scary fourth installment.
The nighttime locomotive travels through an autumnal landscape that’s bursting with Halloween tropes. As in the previous stories, bed-shaped cars are hooked up for a train ride; here, three diverse children are dressed in their Halloween finest as a skeleton, a princess, and a bee. Fans of the series will find the usual perks of a solid rhyme scheme, additional words and sounds peppering the illustrations, and pages of yawning creatures signaling that it’s time for bed. Those unfamiliar with the series will also find the book amusing, but readers who really love Halloween—or spooky things like bats, ghosts, and black cats—will enjoy it the most. As with the other installments in this series, educators and librarians will find this useful for seasonal book displays and storytimes but will probably keep it out year-round because it checks many of the boxes that signal a solid addition to any board-book library. Die-cut circles of various sizes are sprinkled across the double-page spreads, giving caregivers a chance to test young readers’ predictive skills while providing small hints at what’s to come. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
All aboard for a spooktacularly sleepy ride! (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-3586-2607-7
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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