A sweet and simple tale of forgiveness that teaches kids and adults alike the value of helping others.
The fourth entry in Bloom’s children’s series takes Bunny the cat and readers to Tokyo.
Bunny Doogle Simmons-Bloom, the lovable black-and-white cat who travels around the world with her human parents, finds herself in the colorful streets of Tokyo in this installment. There she meets Fumiko the falcon, who, after the death of her husband at the hands of humans, is convinced people are only nice to animals they find cute. Bunny then introduces herself to Haruto, a kind old man who was left blind after the “environmental damage” caused by the long- ago war between the United States and Japan. As Bunny learns some elementary Japanese and how to write haikus from Haruto, she stumbles upon the “Wild Bunch,” a gang of rough-and-tumble cats who are feuding with a rival cat gang called the “Suzuki Crew.” When the Wild Bunch is forced to relocate from their established home, Bunny hatches a brilliant plan for the two gangs to live together in peace. She’ll have to put all her diplomatic skills to use to broker such a deal, since both sides remain highly suspicious of the other’s intentions. With the same kind of simple advice and clear lessons found in the series’ previous entries, Bunny encourages kids to keep going even in the face of setbacks: “What did help is knowing from experience that bad circumstances can get better if you keep trying, if you just hang in there.” Readers will also learn a bit about Japanese culture, including elements of Shintoism, and gain an appreciation for where their food comes from via descriptions of the city’s bustling fish market. The beautiful color illustrations by Mayell scattered throughout lend a sense of playfulness to the adventures that perfectly matches Bunny’s wide-eyed innocence. A question section at the book’s conclusion drives home the real-world lessons that Bunny learns.
A sweet and simple tale of forgiveness that teaches kids and adults alike the value of helping others.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780997642582
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Hello Bunny LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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