A chirpy pick-me-up tailor-made for sharing with one or many glum young listeners.
Bored or grumpy animals from Down Under get a lift from the Cheer-up Bird in this Dutch import. Now, who will cheer up the weary bird?
Three koalas so comically afflicted with ennui that they “were wondering / why they have to climb / and eat / and breathe” hang listlessly from tree branches. Enter the Cheer-up Bird, exuberant of plumage and hue, to trace hearts in the air and put the suddenly bright-eyed furry gents on to a trio of coy koala ladies. Likewise, the bird’s simple appearance is enough to bring three grumpy wombat sibs together for a shared project, lift the spirits of a depressed kangaroo monarch as two kangaroo musicians toot didgeridoos, and gather all the animals together to jolly a pair of elderly emus out of the blahs. The Schuberts make deft use of palette, presenting the cranky animals against muted brown, gray, or lavender backgrounds, then brightening them to sunny yellows, oranges, and blues. Then the droopy bird flaps back to her nest, flying from bright yellow into gloomy grays as the onlooking animals worry that she may not be able to work tomorrow. Fear not: back at her nest, her spirits are recharged by her own flock of little “cheery Cheer-up Bird Birdies!”
A chirpy pick-me-up tailor-made for sharing with one or many glum young listeners. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-935954-45-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lemniscaat USA
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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