Fine for a read-alone but like dynamite for a read-aloud.
A pie cooling on a windowsill and passing miscreants of all stripes make for an inexorable combustion.
This short, cheerful tale of cooperation from Schories features engaging artwork and animal protagonists, and it operates on a very approachable level for beginning readers: “Big Chuck loves pie. // Big Chuck can see the pie. // Big Chuck can smell the pie.” (That covers six pages.) The letters are big and welcoming, and the norm is three to four words per sentence, with the occasional stretch to a James Joyce–an seven. It is not just Big Chuck (a very large woodchuck, as his name suggests) the pie has attracted, but an assortment of rural chums. Trouble is, none can reach the pie by itself. Even working in concert, standing on one another’s shoulders, “Can the mice get the pie? No, they cannot!” In a spontaneous act of interspecies cooperation, Big Chuck hoists the mice on his head, and the pie comes tumbling down. “Pie for everyone!”—though the pie makers may not agree. (It’s blueberry, by the way, and Schories has drawn its warm, blue gooiness just right; it’s irresistible, even lying in the dirt.) The words have pure drive to them, and the repetition calls forth an incantatory urge to speak the words out loud.
Fine for a read-alone but like dynamite for a read-aloud. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3392-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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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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BOOK REVIEW
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