A fun and fantastical tale about an endangered amphibian.
An axolotl yearns to see more of the world in Tatchell’s latest rhyming illustrated children’s book in her Endangered and Misunderstood series about rare animals.
Axol’s grown bored living with the other axolotls in undersea darkness. When he tells them of his dream to see the sun, they say there’s “not a drop of brave” in any axolotl. Axol is undeterred: “If there’s no brave at all in us / I’ll start with just one toe. / And do small things to fill it up / to help our courage grow.” As he emerges into daylight, he meets a blue-capped hummingbird who offers to show him the world. Together, they meet a chicken and goose having tea, then encounter boats passing by, playing music. As he’s about to dive back into the water, he sees a human family on the shore. The hummingbird warns him to be wary, but, feeling brave, Axol gets closer—until a boy picks him up by the foot; the axolotl escapes by leaving his toe behind. He returns to the other axolotls feeling that he wasn’t brave after all, but they’re all impressed and reassure him his toe will grow back. He realizes that “his brave is like his toe. / The scare that made him think it lost, / has really made it grow.” The book concludes with engaging facts about axolotls and blue-capped hummingbirds, as well as ways to help protect them, and diagrams for drawing them. It’s possible that a few young, literal-minded axolotl lovers may bristle at the unrealistic setting, which features top hat wearing amphibians, among other imaginary elements. However, Sulima’s soft pastel illustrations are lush and richly detailed on every page; an image of Axol’s face breaking the surface of the sunlit pond as it ripples around him is especially lovely. Tatchell tells the story in rhymed quatrains, and although younger readers may struggle with the large amount of text, the rhyme and meter are lively, making the book a treat to read aloud.
A fun and fantastical tale about an endangered amphibian.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781998718108
Page Count: 31
Publisher: Fielding House Press Ltd
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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
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