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BOO-LA-LA WITCH SPA

The excess smothers any potential oohs and aahs.

It seems even witches like to treat themselves to a bit of TLC after the frenzy of Halloween.

Berger follows a pleasant young witch who “feels worn out and majorly blah,” so “she books herself into the fab-BOO Witch Spa.” The rhyming couplets relentlessly describe every detail, including (but not limited to) “toadstool-and-skunk candles filling the air, / and paths of black rose petals, scattered with care.” She luxuriates in the Broom Bristle Facial, a Serpent Spit Spritzer, and a Scalp Scrub administered by a couple of spiders. Roxas has fun illustrating the action in a wide range of full-bleed spreads, framed pages, and vignettes. A particularly silly scene showcases the witch in a massage chair reading such magazines as Craftsmopolitan and VooDoo-y Fair. Kids will especially like seeing how the witch’s familiar, a black cat, enjoys the spa. But a little cleverness goes a long way. Without any real plot, the spa day begins to drag on. By the time the witch is enjoying lunch (Hex-Mex and Jinx-Drinks), most readers will be ready for this slim tale to be over.

The excess smothers any potential oohs and aahs. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-8037-3886-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: July 12, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015

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LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

As ephemeral as a valentine.

Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024

ISBN: 9780593702901

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024

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