Visually enticing, inviting repeat visits.
During a museum outing with his grandmother, a boy wanders into an exhibition that yields the unexpected.
“Jackson” is the first image that readers encounter. The black, yellow, and orange drip painting features a feline-shaped white space at the base and a paint-splattered cat emerging on the right. The label for the Jackson Pollack–inspired piece reads: “Adventurous and curious… / but messy.” As Tom, a pale-skinned youngster in shorts and sandals, meanders along, the labels indirectly communicate something about the parodied artists as a stylistically appropriate cat crawls out of each work to join the parade. (The artists, mostly male Europeans, are listed after the conclusion with dates and nationalities.) René Magritte’s animal is blue, dotted with clouds; M.C. Escher’s white twins “sometimes find the world / puzzling.” Ultimately, Henri Rousseau’s tiger sends the terrified kitties back to their respective artworks, except for Jackson, now nearly paint-free, who bids Tom farewell. It’s always fun for children to imagine entering paintings or interacting with their subjects, and while this book is thin on action, young people and adults who know the originals (and are therefore in on the humor) or who enjoy looking at skillfully rendered art will appreciate the experience. As sometimes happens, the publishing planets aligned: The American edition of this U.K. edition publishes the same season as Brian Lies’ Cat Nap (2025), the story of a cat chasing a mouse through historically diverse artworks. Both books offer playful explorations of gallery treasures.
Visually enticing, inviting repeat visits. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781836300205
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scallywag Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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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