by Bruce Ingman & illustrated by Bruce Ingman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1998
The mind behind When Martha’s Away (1995) mines humor from the story of a family and a trail of disappearing objects. Maurice narrates; his mother is either gardening, shopping, knitting, or searching for lost objects, while his father sings in the shower, paints most of the exterior of the house, or looks high and low for a missing dry-cleaning ticket. A double-page spread of the dog, Mac, dressed in a man’s jacket, surrounded by all the missing objects allows readers to be in on the joke. As with Ingman’s previous book, onlookers will either love the art or find it hopelessly naive. The figures are uniformly stiff, but there are always expressive touches: the tilt of Mac’s eyes, the brush strokes that pass for Maurice’s pants, the cobbled-together garden of paint, ink lines, and seed packets. The story is not particularly new, but the pictures can be seen from the back of the room; the book works best as inspiration for children to put together their own scenes of comic domestic turmoil. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-395-88900-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1998
Share your opinion of this book
More by Allan Ahlberg
BOOK REVIEW
by Allan Ahlberg ; illustrated by Bruce Ingman
BOOK REVIEW
by Allan Ahlberg ; illustrated by Bruce Ingman
BOOK REVIEW
by Paul Bright ; illustrated by Bruce Ingman
by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kimberly Dean
BOOK REVIEW
by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean
BOOK REVIEW
by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean
BOOK REVIEW
by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean
by Doreen Cronin & illustrated by Harry Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2005
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Share your opinion of this book
More by Doreen Cronin
BOOK REVIEW
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin
BOOK REVIEW
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin
BOOK REVIEW
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.