A Christmas charmer worth making room for.
Christmas Eve, replete with adorable animals: What could be more festive?
Papa Bear narrates this delightful, all-animal version of Moore’s perennially favorite holiday classic. He and Mama Bear have just settled down with their family for the night on Christmas Eve when a “clatter” outside awakens him. Lo and behold, he sees a “miniature sleigh and eight tiny dog-deer, / With a polar bear driver,” who, in this telling, subs for jolly, red-suited and red-capped St. Nick. In this very cheery adaptation, dogs of different breeds retain the names of the reindeer fleet in the original, so kids familiar with that poem may very well call out their monikers as the book is read aloud. The verse remains the same as in the 19th-century version, except where animal-themed word changes—as noted above—are required to suit these most adorable, child-appealing acrylic illustrations. The artwork depicts not only the pajama-clad bear family and furry pooches adorned with striped antler headbands, but also winsome mice, owls, cats, foxes, raccoons, a hedgehog, and a squirrel or two. The bears have decorated their home for the holiday colorfully, and the cubs have bedded down cozily with their stuffed toys. This is a sweet, endearing way to introduce young children to Moore’s Christmas poem.
A Christmas charmer worth making room for. (the origins of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781464222580
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Lighthearted and un-scary enough for bedtime.
Talk show host Fallon and illustrator Deas follow up 5 More Sleeps ’Til Christmas (2020) with a story of a youngster preparing for Halloween.
“It’s FIVE more sleeps ’til Halloween, / that spooky time of year / where all the ghosts are wide awake / as nighttime’s drawing near.” A calendar page with a large numeral 5 curls before a bright orange pumpkin. An orange-haired, light-skinned moppet wearing an enormous pair of blue glasses is hunkered down in bed with Gary the dog, whose vibrant blue coloring matches the bedspread. Occasionally accompanied by a sibling, the young narrator counts down day by day, describing seasonal activities: picking out a costume, navigating a corn maze, watching scary movies, taking part in a parade, going on a hayride, and trick-or-treating. The rhyming verses are sometimes a bit rocky but always fun. The text is periodically punctuated by the word boo, which appears in large, cartoonlike lettering; that, along with the calendar countdown motif, adds a pleasant repetition. Though the child confides feelings of trepidation (“What if bats fly in my room? / I think I’ll close my window now”), descriptions of scary moments are always offset by brightly colored, exuberant artwork. Humor abounds: Gary looks both hilarious and sweet dressed in a ghost costume that matches the narrator’s. The final page neatly closes the circle as the child goes from anticipating the holiday to participating in it and back again.
Lighthearted and un-scary enough for bedtime. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781250857798
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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