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CLATTER BASH!

Name: CLATTER BASH!
Author: Richard Keep
ISBN: 1-56145-322-6

A DAY OF THE DEAD CELEBRATION

by Richard Keep & illustrated by Richard Keep ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2004

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With its mix of English and Spanish (“Knock-knock! Shh! Huh? Rattle-rattle ¿Qué?”), this celebration of the Mexican Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos), appears to combine the North American tradition of skeletons popping out of graves at Halloween with the Mexican concept of the skeleton as a reminder of mortality and symbol of death. As family members bring offerings to the cemetery at sunset, the skeletons begin lifting lids of the coffins in preparation for rising out of their graves to party. They dash off in a car and on a bicycle, “Putt-putt, Honk-whiz ¡Hola! ¡Hola! Hi!” then marvel at the marigolds, dance with butterflies, tell scary stories, eat, sing, and play before tidying up the cemetery and returning to their graves. “Shush-hush . . . Sigh . . . ¡Gracias!” An author’s note provides information on the Day of the Dead, but these dancing, singing skeletons have little to do with this traditional holiday in which the spirits (not the skeletons) of the dead pay a visit. There are more appealing and authentic Day of the Dead books for this age group. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004

ISBN: 1-56145-322-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Peachtree

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2004

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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edited by Eric Carle

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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

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MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2019

As ephemeral as a valentine.

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Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)