A valuable ecological message, deftly delivered. Incandescent.
A gentle fox finds a friend in a desolate world.
Pandora the fox, who wears a simple blue dress, stands resolutely in the middle of a heaping pile of trash: mattress, bird cage, bicycle wheel, old Victrola, etc. She lives alone “in a land of broken things.” The landscape has a sepia tint, but there are pops of color inside Pandora’s home, where she repairs found articles. One day, outside her window, a bird falls from the sky. It’s broken too, but Pandora knows how to fix it. She makes it snug in a box full of shavings and watches over it. As the days go by, the bird grows stronger. He hops, then flies short distances, always returning to Pandora and his box at night. Until one day he doesn’t, and all that’s left is his nest inside the box. Pandora fears her heart will break. But day by day, from the nest of twigs, trees and flowers and leaves grow, covering the landscape. One morning, Pandora awakens to the sound of bird song and sees a land of green things. And guess who comes back? Turnbull’s beautiful pictures are worth the proverbial thousand words; she wisely keeps the text to a minimum. Her soft, spacious drawings judiciously vary perspective and composition to great effect. Pandora alone in her bed in the upper left of a double-page spread with the empty box in the bottom right says everything.
A valuable ecological message, deftly delivered. Incandescent. (Picture book. 3-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-94733-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This catch is fumbled.
Having attempted to catch the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Gingerbread Man, a group of kids set their sights on a groundhog.
After two score and counting How To Catch books, this latest addition suggests that there’s nothing left to capture. The verses are feeble (“But I’m chilled to my bones deep inside / I feel the wind across my backside”), while the illustrations are mundane. On one page, a child crouches in a drift eating “stick cheese” (apparently because it rhymes with “trees”). Another catches a football thrown by a friend but falls across a stone slab, breaking it in two. Far below, the anthropomorphic groundhog’s breakfast is disturbed; his cup, saucer, creamer, and sugar bowl are jostled. “Tomorrow is his big holiday,” the children note. “Will a shadow fall outside the den? / We need him to answer this riddle: / we know winter ends but not when.” Ultimately, though the intrepid hunters set a series of traps, they’re disappointed to catch only a rabbit. The groundhog, it turns out, is hibernating in an elaborate wrought iron bed. On the very next page, the mayor holds up the beast. How was he caught, then? We don’t know. What was his verdict on winter’s duration? We don’t know. Will the series ever stop? We can only hope. Human characters are diverse.
This catch is fumbled. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781728293035
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A worthwhile tale to encourage sound financial habits.
A headstrong hog demonstrates the do’s and don’ts of saving for a big purchase.
The titular piggy bank rushes to help a bevy of anthropomorphic bills and coins save up for a sled during winter. He wants to do right by his ancestors, seen in a series of porcine portraits on the wall. If only he hadn’t skipped reading The Official Bank Handbook or neglected to plug his belly with a stopper. As a result, Piggy searches for loose change beneath couch cushions and in laundry machines, only for the scant savings to scatter. Sitting still to save money over time is excruciating for Piggy and company, but our hero acquires a work ethic and a sense of thriftiness just in time to make ends meet, purchase a sled, and hit the slopes. In addition to learning temperance and industriousness, Piggy must be dissuaded from taking money from a purse and jollied out of wallowing in tears. His enthusiastic foolhardiness makes him a good Goofus for Gallant readers to cautiously follow through to his eventual redemption. With his shiny round body and frequently smiling face, he’s a natural playmate for the money characters, whom readers may recognize from three previous, loosely connected books by Wilson and Hoffmann. Backmatter traces the centuries-old history of piggy banks and savings funds while sharing savings-related tips and a bibliography.
A worthwhile tale to encourage sound financial habits. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9798890033079
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
