A bright, beautiful work that serves as a gentle introduction to diversity and schoolyard dynamics.
Two young crabs compete to hold the best underwater party in this picture book.
While land dwellers celebrate Mardi Gras, underwater creatures have an equivalent festivity they call Mardi Claw. At Crab school, Clown Crab (who’s orange with white splotches) leaves party invitations for everyone except Blue Crab (who’s green-blue with red claws). Blue retaliates by throwing her own Mardi Claw party. Each host unveils bigger and better attractions: a music-playing jellyfish at Blue’s gathering, a juggling octopus at Clown’s, seahorse rides at Blue’s, two tap-dancing turtles at Clown’s. The guests scuttle from one to the other and back again until they collide and form a happy conga line (“It was the most festive Mardi Claw the coral reef could remember”). Blue and Clown make up and resolve to host next year’s Mardi Claw party together. Snyder narrates by way of straightforward, non-rhyming text, presented in a large, bold font. The crabs’ rivalry forms a simple but effective analogy of child behavior, sweetly complemented by Crisante’s digital illustrations, which are colorful and dynamic, capturing both the protagonists’ personalities and the wild diversity of ocean life. A three-page addendum details the crabs’ scientific names, habitat ranges, and a few key facts about each, including that blue crabs are named for the color of their claws—which observant readers may find confusing, given that Blue appears directly below, pointing out this tidbit with one of her distinctly red claws.
A bright, beautiful work that serves as a gentle introduction to diversity and schoolyard dynamics.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781735619972
Page Count: 28
Publisher: PenDragon Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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