A reminder that the best part of the holiday season isn’t getting, but giving.
A philanthropic family visits New York City and helps many local residents in DeLand’s (Baby Santa and the Missing Reindeer, 2013, etc.) latest children’s-book installment.
What place is more exciting for a family than the Big Apple at Christmastime? When the Bond family decides to visit the city for the holiday, they have more in mind than just seeing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and taking in a show at Radio City Music Hall (although they do those things, too). Accompanied by Baby Santa, a young version of Santa Claus, the Bonds visit a local soup kitchen to help feed those who are short on food, and “everyone is thankful of this good deed.” They go to a children’s hospital to pass out toys to children, bring treats and puppy food to a local animal rescue, and sing Christmas carols at a senior center. However, there’s also room for a little fun, and the family and Baby Santa have a few classic New York moments—marveling at a museum’s exhibits, remarking on the supreme architecture of Grand Central Station, and staying at the St. Regis Hotel. At the end, the family is satisfied, body and soul, by their memorable journey. DeLand’s work is, in a word, charming. In this book, which is sure to become a seasonal favorite, the author perfectly outlines what the holiday season is all about in a way that even young children will understand. After all, what good is receiving nice things if one doesn’t know what it feels like to give them? DeLand also makes clear that life doesn’t have to be all fun or all work: the Bonds “make a family happy” by helping to build a Habitat for Humanity–style home for them, but they also take in a ballet, watching “dancers twirl and soldiers march.” Illustrator Wilson’s images are bright and engaging, driving the plot forward while also providing a glimpse of how magical New York is during the holidays. This book is the perfect antidote to the commercial frenzy of Christmas, and children and adults will enjoy reading it together.
A reminder that the best part of the holiday season isn’t getting, but giving.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1626340862
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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
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