A gleeful holiday caper.
Boynton brings the brio to another celebratory Christmas chorus.
Clad in pastel onesies, seven long-eared rabbit siblings bearing gifts ferry a fir while a lone bunny, who narrates, patiently waits. As the solitary youngster explains to the parental rabbits decorating the tree, “I just want to dance with Santa Claus!” Sure, Santa’s busy, but he’s also “oh so jolly!” so the swing-loving speaker suggests decking the halls “with Buddy Holly.” Radically rejecting commercialism, the small rabbit offers to make a deal: “You can keep all the toys” in exchange for a brief dance with the big guy in red. “It’s not about presents”; it’s about belief—and that faith is joyously rewarded when the sleepless bunny hears a “KUH-THOMPP” from the fireplace. Tan-skinned Santa emerges and issues the all-important invitation. They twirl and jive (a score is provided) for just a moment, but it’s enough. After they bid each other a “Merry Christmas,” the bedded-down bunny cherishes the gift of an enduring memory. The verse comes from a song written for the author’s 2024 Cows and Holly album. Text that has a hand-printed feel alternates with large, colorful serif fonts, potentially aiding beginning readers, while spare but spot-on details in careful compositions provide Boynton’s perennial pictorial panache. No pigs, hippos, or chickens get a look-in, but the bunny’s bedspread is patterned in prancing parallel reindeer.
A gleeful holiday caper. (Picture book. 1-5)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780316593694
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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