A nice, new rendition of the familiar, touching story about the magic and power of belief.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade gets underway in New York with Santa sound asleep at the rear.
Susan’s mother, in charge of the parade, quickly finds a replacement, who introduces himself as Kris Kringle. Welcomed to Thanksgiving dinner with Susan, her mother, and their neighbor Fred, he proclaims that he is the actual Santa Claus. Susan wants to believe him, but her mother has real doubts. The old man is convincing as the department-store Santa, talking to a diverse group of young visitors in different languages, including sign language. Eventually a judge settles the question of whether or not he’s Santa once and for all. A story that’s been adapted to many formats from cinema to radio to television since its publication as a novella by Davies in 1947, here it’s reworked by Hill for a picture-book audience. Gray’s soft-focus illustrations retain the flavor of 1940s New York while consciously developing a diverse cast of secondary characters including an interracial family and a black judge; Susan, her mother, Fred, and Kris Kringle are white, however. A rich palette and holiday-themed borders on some of the pages add to the comforting feel of the book. Inset boxes of illustrations with fuzzy edges re-create some of the cinematic qualities of previous adaptations.
A nice, new rendition of the familiar, touching story about the magic and power of belief. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6986-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Effectively captures the excitement surrounding Valentine’s Day.
A collection of poems follows a group of elementary school students as they prepare for and celebrate Valentine’s Day.
One student starts the day by carefully choosing clothing in pink, purple, or red, while a family kicks off the morning with a breakfast of red, heart-shaped pancakes. At school, children create valentines until party time finally arrives with lots of yummy treats. The students give valentines to their school friends, of course, but we also see one child making a “special delivery” to a pet, a stuffed animal, family members, and even the crossing guard. The poems also extend the Valentine’s celebration to the community park, where other couples—some older, one that appears to be same-sex—are struck by cupid’s “magical love arrows.” Note the child running away: “Blech!” Not everyone wants to “end up in love!!!” But the spread devoted to Valentine’s jokes will please readers more interested in humor than in romance and inspire children to create their own jokes. To make the celebration complete, the last pages of the book contain stickers and a double-sided “BEE MINE!” valentine that readers can, with adult help, cut out. Cheery and kid-friendly, the poems can be read independently or from cover to cover as a full story. The cartoonish illustrations include lots of hearts and emphasize the growing Valentine’s Day excitement, depicting a diverse classroom that includes students who use wheelchairs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Effectively captures the excitement surrounding Valentine’s Day. (Picture-book poetry. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-38717-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will delight in discovering the joyous time pumpkins have when it’s Halloween.
Magical moonbeams awaken a pumpkin patch to raucous Halloween-season revelry.
A moonbeam illuminates and energizes a smiley-faced pumpkin sitting alone on a stair; it promptly takes off to find a friend with whom to have a good time. An entire pumpkin patch, also sparked by the magical moon, instantly comes alive. And what merriment all the grinning gourds get up to! Their playful shenanigans include piling high on top of one another, bouncing on a trampoline, dancing, marching, and drumming, wearing costumes, and competing in games. They even engage in activities usually reserved for other holiday-themed icons—flying on brooms and making magic, for instance. As dawn approaches, the pumpkin leader escorts the cavalcade back home. At sunrise, each one takes up residence on a different house’s front porch and awaits that evening’s moonbeams to work their magic again. Liveliness and good cheer abound in this frisky rhyming tale in which the perennial holiday symbols naturally take center stage. Perky couplets that read and scan very well appear on most pages and are accompanied by energetic, expressive illustrations that highlight vivid oranges, yellows, blues, purples, and greens with touches of other bright shades.
Readers will delight in discovering the joyous time pumpkins have when it’s Halloween. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-56332-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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