This doggy dancer will warm hearts (and incite a few giggles).
Will Biff get the part he really wants?
Biff isn’t like the other canines. Don’t expect him to fetch and roll over. He’d prefer to don his leg warmers, head to ballet class with his human, and plie to his heart’s content. When the class learns that they’ll perform The Nutcracker, Biff sets his sights on playing the Sugar Plum Fairy. He wants that sparkling tiara and the dazzling tutu. Sadly, he and his human are cast as bonbons. Biff mopes for days. Even watching dancing on TV doesn’t cheer him up. His human tries to practice alone, but it isn’t nearly as much fun. But at last Biff rallies, and they practice and perfect the dance of the bonbons. On opening night, the Sugar Plum Fairy is sick (too many sugar plums, it seems), so Miss Polly asks Biff to step in. His little human urges him to take his dream part, but Biff shakes his head; he and his human are the best bonbons in the box. Both a sweet friendship tale and an excellent encapsulation of the adage that there are no small parts, Kemp’s addition to the Nutcracker canon is, like Biff, wholly original. Ogilvie’s light, airy illustrations are a strong match for the text, bringing the story to life with grace and a bit of silliness. Biff’s human is pale-skinned; the cast is diverse.
This doggy dancer will warm hearts (and incite a few giggles). (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781665981033
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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