Between snorts and giggles, kids will soon discover they’re READING! (Early reader. 4-8)
What does an uber-confident tiger about town have to worry about? Flowers? Apples? Books? Of course not! Unless they’re teeming with—WORMS!!!
This tiger loves flowers, but flowers are buried in dirt, and everyone knows worms LOVE dirt. Apples are juicy and crunchy and sweet. The tiger loves apples, but so do WORMS!!! The tiger also LOVES books…unless they’re about the one thing the tiger’s terrified of—WORMS!!! It’s impossible to tell their tops from their bottoms! (Gross!) As the tiger overreacts and drops object after object, what does the resulting trail of flowerpot shards, apple pulp, and a tossed-aside book attract? Squirmy, slimy WORMS!!! Guess what worms are afraid of? Furry, noncrawling TIGERS! After all, “you can tell their tops from their bottoms!” (Gross!) But this tiger left these worms some wonderful dirt. This tiger left these worms a delicious apple. And this tiger left these worms the best thing of all—a book! Time to give this tiger a WORM HUG! “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” Higgins’ latest addition to the Elephant & Piggie Like Reading series is an exclamation-point–packed, liberally uppercased rambunctious rollick through the irrational world of phobias. His Hobbes-like feline is a master of inscrutability (NOT!). Expressions ranging from cheesy grins to abject terror race across the tiger’s face faster than you can thumb a flipbook.
Between snorts and giggles, kids will soon discover they’re READING! (Early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-04573-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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: Aug. 11, 2026
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
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