Though kindness is a quality to be celebrated, this particular vehicle is, alas, forgettable
A sweeter-than-sweet tale of a little bunny who gets her Christmas wish.
Snow Bunny lives by herself in a tree in the forest. Though she whistles happy tunes, she is very lonely, so she writes a letter to Santa asking for a friend. “This is the only present I truly want.” Missing the mail “by a whisker,” she resolves to set out for the North Pole on foot, equipping herself with a pair of mittens, some frosted cookies and a map. On her way, she meets a bear cub with cold paws, a little fox with no Christmas-tree decorations and some lost fawns. “Kindly” giving away her mittens, cookies and map, she reaches the North Pole without further incident. Santa gives her a ride home, where, to no one’s astonishment but hers, she finds all of her new friends waiting. The soft-edged paintings depict a wintry but nonetheless cozy forest liberally decorated with silver foil accents. Children will wonder why so manifestly nice a bunny is friendless and why she bothers writing to Santa at all since she lives within easy walking distance. The dialogue is stilted at best—“I’ll take you home on my way delivering presents and making wishes come true around the world,” Santa tells Snow Bunny—and his sleigh is drawn by only six reindeer.
Though kindness is a quality to be celebrated, this particular vehicle is, alas, forgettable . (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-54103-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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