Another sweetly told romp through the Quiet Woods.
Mother Nature's granddaughter needs help with a bee infestation.
While housesitting for her grandmother, young Willow has been dealing with some of the grosser items on her to-do list, like shoveling manure. She’d rather invite a friend over for a sleepover, but her pal Sam Squirrel (introduced in the series opener) is tied up with school. But before Willow can start cleaning the chicken coop, the birds erupt into chaos with the appearance of a rude queen bee who loves stealing other people’s homes. The only known beekeeper in the Quiet Woods is an allegedly fearsome stink badger. Determined to solve her own problems without calling in Mother Nature, Willow sets out to find the stink badger and oust the queen and her swarm from the coop before it’s too late. Her journey is gently amusing as she discovers strengths (like a gift for songwriting), confronts weaknesses (her practically nonexistent sense of direction), and figures out ways to resolve conflicts. Finally, when everyone else is too afraid, Willow must ignore (literal) warning signs to ask for expert help. Along the way, she makes a misunderstood friend. Though older readers may find the story’s resolution a bit predictable, all will enjoy getting to know the charmingly self-aware Willow as Selfors drops in a few hints about her backstory. Kaulitzki's spotlight illustrations showcase adorably anthropomorphized animals. Willow is depicted with paper-white skin and described as having silver hair.
Another sweetly told romp through the Quiet Woods. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665949057
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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