Downplaying fright, this book is a fine introduction to the holiday for smaller participants.
Counting up from one to 10, a child joyously lists their favorite things about Halloween.
A small child jumps excitedly on a chair to watch Dad at the sewing machine, happily helping to make a “spooktacular” vampire costume. “Making my costume” is No. 1, and the narrator’s light-skinned little sister, dressed as a pumpkin, cheerfully applauds the “terrifically terrifying” look. Riding on a tractor-drawn trailer to go pumpkin picking with both parents is No. 2, while carving the gourd is third. No. 4 is decorating a haunted house, while No. 5 is a “mummy race,” with kids wrapped in toilet paper. No. 6 is getting the house decked out for Halloween. For No. 7, telling spooky stories, the siblings are joined by a friend inside a blanket tent. The counting draws to a close with apple bobbing and dangling doughnuts; a Halloween parade; and, of course, trick-or-treating. And the sadness of day’s end is dispelled by the reassurance of more fun next year. This upbeat tale leans heavily on the sweet rather than the scary side of Halloween, Lively, colorful, slightly simplified illustrations with changing background color washes offer many details for young viewers to spot, including lots of lights and the family’s black cat. The main character and their family are light-skinned; the supporting cast is diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Downplaying fright, this book is a fine introduction to the holiday for smaller participants. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781680102949
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
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)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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