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
PERSPECTIVES
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
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: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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