A well-crafted, immersive, interactive tale for children.
In this installment of the Dance-It-Out! series, Herbert intertwines a story of a helpful firefly with dance movements in a delightful tale for children.
The Silver Birch Forest animals begin gathering to celebrate the solstice. The highlight of the celebration is the “Firework Fliers, a squad of one hundred fireflies who would light up the sky in a dazzling, darting, dizzying kaleidoscope”; the grand finale determines who best captures the spirit of the season. Fenix, a firefly with short wings, dreams of being a Firework Flier, but realizes that is unlikely. His best friend, Bolt, is a Firework Flier, and Fenix is ready to cheer him on. Unfortunately, Bolt drinks too much nectar and gets a bellyache. Fenix decides to step in so the show won’t be spoiled. As Fenix climbs the tree to shine at the top, he encounters a bullfrog, a spider, and an owl, all offering to help Fenix—but they really want to help themselves to a firefly snack. He eludes them, and, with the Firework Fliers, he helps to create glowing animal shapes to enchant the forest animals, including snakes, rabbits, and, finally, fireflies, with Fenix shining brightly at the top. “Everyone agreed fireflies were the perfect Spirit of the Season.” The book, a creative blend of narrative and interactive participation, encourages children to act out the tale—each portion of the story is accompanied by dance movements, with descriptions and photographs of a ballerina executing each element of the choreography. The movements involve all parts of the body, with instructions such as “flap your raven wings in the breeze” and “swish and sway like a fish.” Partridge’s illustrations, in soft, glowing colors, enrich the story beautifully, and the text is rich with imagery (“The sun had cast long shadows across the field”). A lovely message is conveyed to readers: Everyone is important, and each of us, no matter how small, can play a key part in the things we do.
A well-crafted, immersive, interactive tale for children.Pub Date: March 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781955555821
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Once Upon A Dance
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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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