Drops dollops of wisdom into a sure storytime hit.
A sly morality tale featuring a dung beetle and a lot of his favorite stuff.
Usually the beetle is grateful for the sun, the sky, and whatever he receives from the elephants towering high overhead—“SPLAT!” But then a leopard’s remark about a distant farm “with more dung than any beetle could dream of” leads him to a cow barn where the fragrant deposits are so thrillingly massive that he must hire other beetles to help. They gather the dung into a tall, teetering, jealously guarded mountain that’s far too large to roll anywhere. Alas, such untrammeled greed can have but one catastrophic result, but rather than becoming a fecal fatality, the beetle emerges from the climactic monumental dungslide a chastened insect. With a renewed appreciation for what he had, he returns to the river bank to take joy in the warm sun, the boundless forest, and, of course, his fair and sufficient share of SPLAT. Kitted out with wide eyes and, when he’s swimming in the fresh gloop, a winningly goofy grin, the six-legged scarab, roughly the size of the toenails on the enormous elephantine feet behind him, stands in the ground-level scenes with limbs raised joyously to the sky in supplication. Weber brushes atmospheric views of moonlit grasses and cranes flying across a red sun into art that, along with the tale’s terse, formal language, lends a properly folkloric tone to the drollery.
Drops dollops of wisdom into a sure storytime hit. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781368100083
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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