A sweet holiday tale that emphasizes love and acceptance all year round.
In Vanous’ picture book, Santa Claus finds a runaway puppy requiring some Christmas magic to find the perfect home.
It is summertime, and Santa Claus is busy playing “reindeer games” in the woods when he stumbles upon a lost little puppy named Asher. Asher’s sisters were recently adopted; the fluffy white dog explains that he is hoping for “a home that feels just right—one full of adventures and someone who will love me forever.” Santa takes Asher back to the North Pole, where the pup spends the rest of the year frolicking with animals and elves alike. Just before Christmas, Santa receives a letter from a fair-skinned, brown-haired little girl named Karen Sue who wishes for a puppy of her very own. So, on Christmas night, as Asher helps Santa with his deliveries, they make one final stop at Karen Sue’s house—where Asher realizes he has finally found his perfect home. Mrs. Claus narrates with an appropriate simplicity punctuated by occasional vivid descriptions (“he looked as fresh and bright as a peppermint stick in new-fallen snow”). There are moments when the prose snags as it sporadically veers into rhyming territory, but this never obscures the hopeful message that everyone is deserving of love. Flint’s illustrations are cheerful, consisting of broad strokes and colorful shading done in a somewhat old-fashioned style. The result is a quiet, comforting story brimming with puppy love.
A sweet holiday tale that emphasizes love and acceptance all year round.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798990258655
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts.
What terrors lurk within your mouth? Jasper Rabbit knows.
“You have stumbled your way into the unknown.” The young bunny introduced in Reynolds and Brown’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Creepy Carrots (2012), takes up Rod Serling’s mantle, and the fit is perfect. Mimicking an episode of The Twilight Zone, the book follows Charlie Marmot, an average kid with a penchant for the strange and unusual. He’s pleased when his tonsils become infected; maybe once they’re out he can take them to school for show and tell! That’s when bizarre things start to happen: Noises in the night. Slimy trails on his bedroom floor. And when Charlie goes in for his surgery, he’s told that the tonsils have disappeared from his throat; clearly something sinister is afoot. Those not yet ready for Goosebumps levels of horror will find this a welcome starter pack. Reynolds has perfected the tension he employed in his Creepy Tales! series, and partner in crime Brown imbues each illustration with both humor and a delicate undercurrent of dark foreshadowing. While the fleshy pink tonsils—the sole spot of color in this black-and-white world—aren’t outrageously gross, there’s something distinctly disgusting about them. And though the book stars cute, furry woodland creatures, the spooky surprise ending is 100% otherworldly—a marvelous moment of twisted logic.
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts. (Early chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665961080
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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