A short and sweet adventure.
Your imagination can take you anywhere.
Two light-skinned siblings spend the day outdoors imagining they are living wild in the forest. Though the text, narrated in first person by the older sibling, relates daring escapades, the artwork depicts the kids in their own backyard. The older child teaches the little one survival skills, and the two come upon a puma (actually a house cat) and must run away, leaving their food behind. The children follow the footprints of “a wild beast,” and soon it’s time for a showdown—“It is either us or him.” The siblings conquer the beast (the family dog), and the narrator informs readers that they will eat well tonight. Next it is time to set up the tent and a warning system in case of more wild creatures. The alarm goes off! But it’s just their mom with water bottles, and soon it’s time for bed—back in the safety of the children’s bedroom. The pencil and watercolor illustrations use a combination of saturated and light colors; scenes depicting big moments fill the page dramatically, and readers will feel immersed in this verdant, idyllic world. The contrast between text and images is clever, and the relationship between the protective older sibling and the younger one is delightful. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A short and sweet adventure. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4767-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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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