Though the text is a little wordy, the appealing illustrations, simple plot and warm, family-centered emotional tone make...
A pair of mouse siblings, Pip and Squeak, work together to build a snowman in this sweet but slight holiday offering, first published in Switzerland.
Pip and his sister build a large, traditional snowman near their house and then decide the snowman might be lonely or might catch cold (get it?) outside on a hill all alone. The little mice fetch their sturdy sleigh and surreptitiously haul the snowman into the house, hiding him behind the tree. Daddy and Mommy Mouse intervene and reinstall the snowman outside the house, looking in the window, where he inspires an outdoor Christmas Eve celebration that draws in the whole neighborhood. Soft-focus watercolor-and-pencil illustrations show the cozy anthropomorphic world of the mouse family, with patchwork armchairs and a candle-lit Christmas tree. The mice wear charming clothing, especially the little ones dressed in warm coats, mittens and snow boots. One illustration fails to match the text, which specifically mentions the children’s present for their parents: a cat-shaped nutcracker. Observant children will search among the gifts shown in that spread for the nutcracker, which is nowhere to be seen.
Though the text is a little wordy, the appealing illustrations, simple plot and warm, family-centered emotional tone make this a suitable though not essential choice for holiday story time. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4045-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
Skip it
This book wants to be feminist.
Princess Penelope Pineapple, illustrated as a white girl with dark hair and eyes, is the Amelia Bloomer of the Pineapple Kingdom. She has dresses, but she prefers to wear pants as she engages in myriad activities ranging from yoga to gardening, from piloting a plane to hosting a science fair. When it’s time for the Pineapple Ball, she imagines wearing a sparkly pants outfit, but she worries about Grand Lady Busyboots’ disapproval: “ ‘Pants have no place on a lady!’ she’d say. / ‘That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.’ ” In a moment of seeming dissonance between the text and art, Penny seems to resolve to wear pants, but then she shows up to the ball in a gown. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the family cat, Miss Fussywiggles, falls from the castle into the moat and Princess Penelope saves her—after stripping off her gown to reveal pink, flowered swimming trunks and a matching top. Impressed, Grand Lady Busyboots resolves that princesses can henceforth wear whatever they wish. While seeing a princess as savior rather than damsel in distress may still seem novel, it seems a stretch to cast pants-wearing as a broadly contested contemporary American feminist issue. Guthrie and Oppenheim’s unimaginative, singsong rhyme is matched in subtlety by Byrne’s bright illustrations.
Skip it . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2603-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here.
A sugary poem, very loosely based on the familiar song, lacks focus.
Using only the refrain from the original (“One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel all right!”), the reggae great’s daughter Cedella Marley sees this song as her “happy song” and adapts it for children. However, the adaptation robs it of life. After the opening lines, readers familiar with the original song (or the tourism advertisement for Jamaica) will be humming along only to be stopped by the bland lines that follow: “One love, what the flower gives the bee.” and then “One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree.” Brantley-Newton’s sunny illustrations perfectly reflect the saccharine quality of the text. Starting at the beginning of the day, readers see a little girl first in bed, under a photograph of Bob Marley, the sun streaming into her room, a bird at the window. Each spread is completely redundant—when the text is about family love, the illustration actually shows little hearts floating from her parents to the little girl. An image of a diverse group getting ready to plant a community garden, walking on top of a river accompanies the words “One love, like the river runs to the sea.”
Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4521-0224-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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