A heartwarming, funny lesson in keeping one’s cool.
Working in a china shop tests a bull’s anger-management skills.
A burly bull and former linebacker, Clovis has a “temper as big as he was,” but since he started running his grandmother Grace’s china shop, he feels calmer. Repeating Granny’s mantra—“Grace, grace. Nothing broken to replace”—Clovis carefully unpacks and stacks fine porcelain. One day some former football rivals appear outside the shop, mocking Clovis by calling him a “wimp” and a “bull in a china shop.” His anger rising, Clovis feels the urge to charge, but deep-breathing techniques help him ignore the hecklers. On dusting day, Clovis happily polishes glassware when the hecklers return, insulting his cleaning efforts. Stroking the cat, Clovis again keeps his cool. They come back once more as Clovis arranges a tea display in the window. When the hecklers insult Granny Grace and break her favorite teacup, Clovis is “all out of grace.” Leaving smashed china in his wake, a raging Clovis chases the cowering hecklers into an alley, where he composes himself to channel Grace, then offers them tea, with surprising results. Painterly illustrations cleverly juxtapose Clovis, with his menacing horns and barrel-chested, bulging-biceps, linebacker physique, with the rather fussy china shop. Humorous scenes of Clovis meditating in lotus pose, lighting candles, pouring tea into delicate cups, and arranging flowers contrast with powerful close-ups of his brief descent into raging-bull mode, enhanced by exaggerated facial expressions and dramatic lighting.
A heartwarming, funny lesson in keeping one’s cool. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64567-213-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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
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