A starry and heartfelt journey that will carry many rapt children through pre-Christmas bedtimes.
The beloved Steam Train is freighted with holiday cheer.
A rabbitlike creature sits up in surprise as a distant train approaches over the frozen landscape. A crew of cartoon monkeys, kangaroos, a purple elephant, a dinosaur, an extremely long-necked giraffe, and more load the boxcars with crates, and the train lifts off into the sky. An enthusiastic tanker team stirs some dubiously varied but sweet-smelling ingredients into a magic brew whose fragrance wafts through the air, lifting the hearts and spirits of those below. The festive music that the creatures play spreads joy as decorations rain down, and “every bauble, bow, and strand / creates a Christmas wonderland.” The rhythm occasionally falters, but the robust rhymes keep the stock rolling. Rinker’s text avoids the commercial side of Christmas, instead highlighting the emotional meaning of the holiday—“what you cannot hold or touch,” “laughter, love, and memories,” “the joy of friends and families,” and “faith in what is strong and sure”—as the train circles the Earth, “wreathed / in peace and love.” The illustrations bring dazzling magic to the narrative, with stars and snowflakes early on, then gusts of golden glitter—the freight carried and showered down—giving a sparkle to every page.
A starry and heartfelt journey that will carry many rapt children through pre-Christmas bedtimes. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781797227030
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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