She’s back! The spunky, resourceful toy dinosaur that Kastner introduced in Princess Dinosaur (2001) returns for a creative Christmastime adventure with her fellow toy friends. The episodic plot follows the neon-green, red-skirted princess as she eats Santa’s snack, tangles with the household watchdog, climbs up on the roof, falls down the chimney, and hides in the Christmas tree. The strong narrative voice comments on Princess Dinosaur’s boisterous actions in present tense as they unfold, giving a cinematic effect accented by the oversized format and an active sense of motion. Kastner’s watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations are exuberant and joyful, just like her heroine. The artist finds opportunities for dramatic, memorable spreads, as when Princess Dinosaur stamps out a message to Santa in the snow (“Dear Santa, I’m down here!”) or when she pops out of a pile of brightly wrapped presents with a huge, toothy grin to welcome Christmas morning. The satisfying conclusion shows Princess Dinosaur hugging her present from Santa, a green dinosaur doll. (“Just what she’s always wanted!”) In a crowded field of dinosaur stories full of little boys and male dinosaurs, three cheers for Kastner for creating a charismatic female character that little girl dinosaur devotees can cherish. Long live the princessaurus. (Picture book. 2-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-000471-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
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BOOK REVIEW
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