A buoyant seafaring escapade.
Anchors aweigh, play-mateys!
Raymundo’s metanarrative opens with Captain Herman and avian first mate Mr. Plume in hot pursuit of their titular pal; Moby Duck proves a worthy adversary in a game of nautical hide and seek, and besting him won’t be an easy feat. But readers anticipating an immersive, swashbuckling epic will find those expectations soon subverted when a shift in perspective reveals that the seemingly open seas are actually confined to a porcelain tub, and these sailors are really bath toys at the destructive mercy of a sudsy, light-skinned tot, who’s a stand-in for (and doppelgänger for) Captain Herman; the title character is a cheery-looking rubber ducky. The brief tableaux that follow offer more punny patchwork than plot, introducing (and quickly resolving) trials like the Forest of Eye-Stinging Bubbles and the Wall of FAH-SET. Herman alternatively appears as intrepid mariner and splashy bather, at once the cause of and good-natured victim of imaginative chaos. And juvenile Melville-heads need not fret—the infamous whale winked at throughout makes an appearance, too. Raymundo is at his best when realizing moments of chuckle-inducing self-awareness—of which there are many—but while his premise is strong, his execution is somewhat stymied by uneven pacing. This flaw is forgivable, given the narrative’s mimicry of imaginative bathtime play, but it yields a less satisfying conclusion than more traditional adventure narratives. Nonetheless, hesitant bathers will appreciate the creative inspiration.
A buoyant seafaring escapade. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593531341
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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