Well-meant but heavy-handed.
A Pennsylvania Dutch folk tale about the origin of the robin’s red breast is woven into a story of a girl and her grandmother preparing for Easter together.
This interpretation offers new illustrations for a work that was originally published as The Story of the Easter Robin and illustrated by Anna Vojtech (2010). The cheery, new cover shows a little blonde white girl and her appealing dog gazing out a window at a robin’s nest with five eggs (though the text clearly specifies four eggs). Tressa and her grandmother watch as a pair of robins builds a nest right outside their window in the days before Easter. Tressa worries about the safety of the eggs, and her grandmother reassures her repeatedly that God will take care of the robins. They make bird decorations from dyed eggs, and Gran tells Tressa a legend about robins and why their breasts are red. At the crucifixion of Jesus, a robin pulled a thorn out of Jesus’ forehead, and a drop of blood stained the bird’s breast. The illustrations of the girl and the grandmother are cheerful and contemporary, but the depictions of the robin at the crucifixion shift to a dark sepia palette with frightening overtones. Jesus is shown carrying the cross, wearing the crown of thorns, and a menacing hand with a whip strikes out at both Jesus and the robin. (Birders will quibble that the robin depicted in the crucifixion story is American, a geographical impossibility.) The relatively lengthy text veers from chipper to lugubrious, with a preachy tone overall.
Well-meant but heavy-handed. (author’s note) (Religion/picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-310-74964-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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