by Pamela Mayer & illustrated by Lydia Monks ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2001
Thea Dewhickey’s parents might be a couple of potato-heads, but they are also overachievers of the worst type: They overachieve for their daughter. Young Thea wants to be a scary monster for Halloween, with “claws and fangs and green scales and blood dripping off the corners of my mouth, and maybe even an ax coming out of my head” . . . that sort of thing. The Dewhickeys, angling for first prize at the costume parade, think she ought to be a butterfly, or perhaps a Spanish dancer. But Thea wards off their importuning until her Grandma arrives on the scene to take things in hand. Thea gets her scary costume, and Mr. and Mrs. Dewhickey get to be, respectively, a Spanish dancer and a butterfly. They even win honorable mentions. Though the self-serving parents get hoisted on their own petards, Mayer keeps a poker-face on the narrative—“The judges thought the butterfly costume Grandma made for Mrs. Dewhickey was dreamy . . . Thea was so proud”—so it never feels obvious or punishing. On the other hand, Monks’s artwork, of paint and collage, is comic relief of the highest sort, with great clunky shapes, electric colors, and wide expressive eyes. Leave it to the always-witty Monks to make Grandma a witch with skeleton earrings, purple purse, and pointy hat (a fact never mentioned in the text). Will appeal to monsters everywhere. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23459-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
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by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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by Adam Wallace ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2017
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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