Playfully and skillfully balancing two languages, this cat tale proves cute and clever.
A fashionable feline with nine siblings teaches Spanish words and counting as part of a trip to town.
The titular cat, who walks on two legs and wears a top hat, a scarf, boots, and a vest, is followed around by a varied group of sibling cats who walk on all fours, each of whom playfully pretends to be Gato Guapo. Each time, he counts the cats (“Uno, dos, tres…”), looking for the missing cat, who then appears, shouting, “¡Yo soy Gato Guapo!” and wearing one of Guapo’s items of clothing or accessories. Along the way, the book mixes in unitalicized Spanish words or phrases within the English text, unobtrusively working in enough context that most may be easily understood by young non-Spanish readers. (A word list at the end translates all the Spanish in the book.) Unlike in similar books, this story doesn’t clumsily blend languages or rely on the oft-used technique of parrot-repeating a Spanish word with its English equivalent. Instead, the phrasing flows well. However, what works so nicely in the first few pages is abandoned for the cat reveals. It would have been nice to have seen more of the well-combined bilingual flow. Still, Gato Guapo’s got a lot of style, and so does the book—the anthropomorphized animals cut winsome poses and will readily endear themselves to readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Playfully and skillfully balancing two languages, this cat tale proves cute and clever. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-306266-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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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