A sweet family Christmas purchase that will be treasured through the years.
Christmas and bunnies: What could be sweeter?
A grownup rabbit and an adorable youngster prepare for the holiday. They decorate their home and get in some tobogganing. They bake pumpkin pies, plum pudding, cake, and star-shaped cookies adorned with red and green sprinkles, then wrap presents and hang mistletoe. There’s still more holiday prep to do, and some activities involve joining with others. They play, dance, sing, and ring bells; build snow bunnies and snowballs from freshly fallen snow; and gather with family and friends to sing carols, ending the evening by sipping hot cocoa and preparing for bed. The adult helps the little one wish on a star and utters the best words a child can hear at Christmastime or any time: “Jingle bell baby, I love you. Sleep tight.” This is a delightful holiday tale, expressed in lilting verse, and just right for reading all cuddled up with one’s own “jingle bell baby.” It will work better, however, as a personal purchase rather than a library one—and as a lovely Christmas gift—because the book’s opening page invites inscriptions and the final two pages include one on which a parent, grandparent, or other loving caregiver is encouraged to write “A Special Letter to My Favorite Bunny” and one on which to paste a photo. The cheery, colorful illustrations are as soft, warm, and lush as rabbit fur.
A sweet family Christmas purchase that will be treasured through the years. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781534113121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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