Silly fun with a confusing takeaway.
In this retelling of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Prince Sacha holds a contest to find a fabulous gown.
Prince Sacha has the best of everything: the most ornate palace, the best food, and the “fiercest clothes.” As the Parade of Princely Prancing approaches, however, the regal bear finds that he has nothing to wear to the annual event celebrating his impeccable style. He declares an emergency contest, inviting fashion designers from across the kingdom to design a gown worthy of the big event. Nothing pleases Prince Sacha. Then a rabbit named Panini presents a truly singular gown, made of fabric so special, “only the most fabulous animals can see it.” Readers will delight in Prince Sacha’s dramatic outfits and towering heels and have fun identifying his eclectic subjects; in this kingdom, emperor penguins, zebras, and star-nosed moles all attend court together. While the story preserves the same narrative beats as the original fairy tale, the ultimate message is unclear. Though Prince Sacha is shown to be demanding and fickle, served by a group of unhappy, beleaguered cats and surrounded by piles of fine clothing, his excess is celebrated rather than censured. Indeed, the animals of his court seem content to revel in unexamined fabulousness rather than question how their prince was so easily deceived. Though no human characters appear, architecture and a reference to boba imply a Chinese setting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Silly fun with a confusing takeaway. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781338324747
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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