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
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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