A pleasant party bonbon.
When the family hires the man in the big, brown bear suit to entertain at Billy's birthday party, many surprises follow.
He wears a little purple hat and is greeted with cheers by the party guests. After voraciously consuming the proffered tea and biscuits, he lets out a surprising "BURP!" (Both Mom and Dad notice his bad manners.) The children chase him through the door, and he slips on a skateboard, spinning and whirling before crashing into a lamp. The kids love it, but the parents are rather horrified, even more so when he eats a bunch of flowers and glugs down all the water in the jug. The children want to try on his suit, but they can't seem to get it off...or even find a zipper. The Entertainer finds the birthday spread and eats it all, triggering a big sprawling snooze right there on the table. (Luckily, Mom had put the cake in the fridge.) Frazzled Mom and Dad are exhausted by the end of the party, but Billy wants to have him back next year. The doorbell rings; who should be standing in the doorway but a real man in a bear suit. Dodd's illustrations are colorful, and her story rhymes briskly, with droll, two-couplet etiquette tips tucked into page corners. Children, of course, will have tumbled to the Entertainer’s real identity long before the characters do.
A pleasant party bonbon. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0078-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property.
Since a reformed Grinch is hardly any fun, this follow-up Grinches him up once more.
Those seeking more of the same, prepare to receive precisely that. Christmas is coming (again!), and the Grinch can hardly wait. He’s been patient all year, and now he can finally show the Whos down in Who-ville how much he’s changed. When the Grinch learns of a tree-decorating contest, he figures that if he wins, it’ll prove he truly has the Christmas spirit. He throws himself into the task, but when it comes time to judge the trees, the Grinch is horrified to discover that he’s received only the second-place trophy. Can Cindy-Lou Who find the words to save the day? Replicating many of the original beats and wordplay of the original, this tale feels like less a sequel and more like a vaguely rewritten variation. Meanwhile, Ruiz’s art seeks to bridge the gap between the animated Chuck Jones version of the Grinch and the one depicted in the original book. This thankless task results in a strange uncanny valley between Seuss and Jones but does allow the artist a chance to colorize everything and lend some racial diversity to the Who population (Cindy-Lou is light-skinned). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593563168
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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