An engaging celebration of ambition and the imagination with magical illustrations.
A young woman achieves her dream of becoming a magician with the help of her rabbit in this children’s book.
Holly Foster, a brown-skinned, freckled, curly-haired woman, loves performing magic with her white rabbit, Buddy. “I wish we could do this every day,” she tells her companion after a children’s show. In a flashback to Holly’s childhood, readers see that she has loved magic from a young age, admiring her Uncle Bob, a magician. When told girls “can only be a magician’s assistant” by a boy in her class, Holly ignores his comment, pulling a coin from behind his ear. Uncle Bob gives her Buddy and, when he retires after an “Indian Rope Trick” gone awry, leaves her his magician’s trunk. Buddy wants to help Holly become a full-time, professional magician. He reads Uncle Bob’s books and plans a way for her to perform an exceptional trick at the “Night of the New Magicians” event. Holly creates a perfect illusion, allowing her to realize her dream. While the story of a supportive anthropomorphic rabbit and a talented magician works well, Maret leaves readers with some key questions. There are no answers as to why Holly struggles to become a full-time magician and why there are so few female practitioners. And her day job, hinted at, is never described. At one point, Buddy leaves their apartment to enlist neighborhood animals for assistance, but the final trick he and Holly execute involves no extra creatures. When Holly performs her fancy illusion, Buddy initially waves the wand, making it seem as though she is functioning as the assistant, a role she rejected as a child. These quibbles aside, the author’s accessible text and calm, repeated refrain about Buddy’s “rabbity way” of helping will appeal to young would-be magicians. Behrend’s oil pastel illustrations, which feature a diverse array of magicians and audience members, match the book’s tone. They capture the whimsical, beautiful finale in a way that feels like magic. Behrend also sneaks in images of the covers of her title The Survivor Tree (2017) and Maret’s The Cloud Artist (2017) in a classroom where Holly performs a trick.
An engaging celebration of ambition and the imagination with magical illustrations.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-937054-76-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: The RoadRunner Press
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!
Fun with friends makes for a great day.
Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593646212
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Seuss Studios
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
