Fun and playful…or so Shark would have us believe.
A maligned shark steals the show to explain just how wrong his fellow fish are about him in Dyckman and Magoon’s debut collaboration.
Sporting a stylish fedora atop his bell, Bob, a jellyfish TV host, is about to start his show when a great white shark interrupts. Bob begs Shark not to eat a fish on the air, and Shark, with a big smile to the audience, insists he had no intention of eating anyone and simply wanted to show off his new tooth. After all, “sharks can grow and lose 30,000 teeth in their lifetime”—never mind that they lose most of them by using their powerful jaws on their prey, a “fun fact” that Bob, perhaps sensibly, omits. Bob never does quite get control of his show back as Shark hauls off first to eat a baby seal (whom he really just wanted to return to her seal family) and then to chase down a source of blood (so he could offer a Band-Aid). Although she seems to gender all her characters male with the exception of two ungendered squid production assistants and the female baby seal, Dyckman otherwise gives ambiguity the narrative spotlight with well-honed tension prolonging readers’ indecision. Meanwhile, Magoon’s flair for underwater illustration also allows a shark’s redemption and his prey’s suspicion to both live on the page. Readers will need to decide for themselves if Shark is really as scary as he seems or if misunderstandings have colored our opinions.
Fun and playful…or so Shark would have us believe. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-11247-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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