Congratulatory cheerleading and wise whimsy to celebrate accomplishments of all sorts.
Go ahead. Judge this book by the cover.
On a softly psychedelic background, a cartoon-style tiger greets readers with a wonderfully cheesy smile that is every orthodontist’s dream. A sticker reads: “The PERFECT gift for every milestone!” In text uniformly presented in the second person, each spread inside gives readers a boost. “Because you’re / FIERCE. / A rising star! / You’ve earned your stripes. / You’ve come so far! / No matter who you choose / to be, you’ll be / TERR-IFIC. / Wait and see!” (Even though the text is in verse, it’s not always laid out accordingly.) Readers are encouraged to “find your place” and to “do your part” but also to “be humble,” to “land on your paws” in times of trouble, to help new friends, and to “use your strength to shine a light / on what is wrong and what is RIGHT.” A white tiger with multicolored stripes encourages further growth: “To your spirit you’ll stay true, never sorry to be you. / But CHANGE YOUR STRIPES / if they don’t suit you. / Dare to swap them—we’ll salute you.” Most spreads contain a complete four-line rhythmic and rhyming stanza in second person. A variety of other animals join the tiger in its shining moment. The book’s open commercial appeal doesn’t mask its effectiveness.
Congratulatory cheerleading and wise whimsy to celebrate accomplishments of all sorts. (Picture book. 4-8, all ages)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3964-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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