A sweet treat in words and pictures for young pet lovers and beginning readers.
A puppy proves she is big enough to learn new skills.
Gentle in spirit and smartly crafted, the second entry in Roth and Penn’s picture-book series about puppy Lucy (Little Lovable Lucy’s Big Day, 2022) brings fresh challenges for its canine heroine. Here, the authors’ simple narrative in Lucy’s voice highlights the pup’s various emotions (hesitancy, excitement, pride) as she learns new, big-girl skills such as walking on a leash, “sit” and “stay,” and climbing stairs. Throughout, Lucy’s human adult and sibling caretakers model positive parental reinforcement, including “Good effort, Lucy. Try again,” and “I knew you could do it!” The book’s clear, repetitive text offers good practice for beginning readers and encouragement for pre-readers to follow along: “Some days I walk with Mommy. Some days I walk with Daddy. Some days I walk with Mommy and Daddy.” Hernandez’s detailed, dynamic digital art adds visual appeal in double-panel and single-panel illustrations, some filling the page, others small, colorful vignettes against white space. Among them are pictures showing Lucy’s bouncy progress through a park; her triumphant ascent of the stairs, one step at a time; and her diverse, happy human family (a White mom, a dad who is Black, their children (a mix of both), and friends and neighbors of different races and ethnicities). Readers who are charmed by Lucy’s growing-up adventures but ready for chapter books will find a similar experience in author Jeanne Bender’s travel-themed, five-part Lindie Lou Adventureseries about a well-loved—and also floppy-eared—puppy.
A sweet treat in words and pictures for young pet lovers and beginning readers.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-7376630-1-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Wag Your Tale Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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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