Fruitcake, that proto-matter, one of the only unnatural substances known to have survived The Flood, seems to exist mainly for a good joke. And two of Carlson’s (How About a Hug?, p. 1022, etc.) favorite characters have their own run-in with it here. It’s Christmas time and Harriet and George spy Ms. Hoozit coming out of the grocery store. Naturally, they quake in their boots: “Ms. Hoozit is making fruitcake!” With dismal memories of befouled taste buds and shattered teeth dancing in their heads (though also with happy memories of using the cake to crack nuts), the two do their best to hide from Ms. Hoozit and her force-fed fruitcake. They are successful, though Harriet’s brother gets nabbed. When Harriet and George go to commiserate, they learn that Ms. Hoozit hasn’t made fruitcake this year, but rather some delicious fudge. Making themselves conspicuous, George and Harriet get invited in for a Christmas treat. They rub their greedy paws, then learn that all the fudge is gone. Fear not; Ms. Hoozit has something for them—remnants of last year’s fruitcake. What goes around, comes around—and fruitcake? It’s the gift that keeps on giving. A simply marvelous story that has to be accompanied with a slice of well-aged fruitcake. Carlson’s wonderfully gawky, innocent artwork adds immeasurably to the tale. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-57505-506-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
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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