A fun and enjoyable gingerbread tale with striking illustrations.
A persistent fox tries to re-create the perfect gingerbread recipe in this debut illustrated children’s book.
It isn’t easy making gingerbread. Fox once ate the most scrumptious, delectable gingerbread cookies, but the older woman and man don’t make them anymore, and he has been racking his brain for the right recipe ever since. He tries and tries but can never seem to get the correct combination of ingredients together. It isn’t until he has a dream that sparks inspiration for a further batch of cookies that he finally succeeds. But all is not as he hoped: His gingerbread twins, Gavin and Greyson, jump right off his cookie sheet and make a break for it. Chanting “We’ll run double fast, / with gigantic grins. / You can’t catch us, / we’re the gingerbread twins!” Gavin and Greyson escape to a nearby town, first hiding in a bakery before running to the park. Fox is hot on their trail, though, and he may just be able to catch them. Readers will love how all the twists and turns of this story keep them on their toes. The bright, warm illustrations by Scebold bring depth and movement that take the tale to the next level, integrating with the text through speech bubbles inspired by graphic novels. Although it isn’t clear why only some speech is in bubbles while lines like most of those belonging to the gingerbread twins and Fox’s “Where could they be?” are integrated into the text, the format isn’t hard to follow. The same is true for rhyme. Most of the lines, mainly belonging to Fox, are rhymed but not all, and the transition is abrupt. But Fox’s rhythmic baking mantra is cute and simple and could be used to create a call-and-response between storyteller and audience in a read-aloud situation. The tale’s end seems sudden, perhaps because it is a shame to leave Hayes’ characters and Scebold’s images behind. This story is an engaging addition to the genre of runaway gingerbread fairy tales that has been popular for almost 150 years.
A fun and enjoyable gingerbread tale with striking illustrations.Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73775-496-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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