No need to wish for another delightful unicorn tale. It’s already been granted.
Ever wondered where unicorns come from?
The titular character—introduced in The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn (2024)—has always wanted to make a wish to become big, but he’s missed every opportunity; he was sleeping when a shooting star flew by, and he was too small to throw a lucky penny into the wishing well. One day, his parents have an important announcement, but the unicorn is too busy to pay attention—he’s just accidentally summoned a brown-skinned fairy princess. She invites the unicorn to “find for me something that grows teeny-weeny-er than you.” He fails repeatedly in this quest, until a tree drops a small bud. But by the time the unicorn meets the fairy again, the bud has burst wide open. Is all lost? No! Inside is an even smaller unicorn, and our hero learns that he’s going to be a big sibling (that was his parents’ news). Wielding deft chalk pastels, Harris evokes incredible emotions from his minuscule protagonist. The text reads aloud so well that it brings to mind classic stories such as Paul Galdone’s The Teeny-Tiny Woman. Though charming, Harris’ storytelling yields some confusion: How did the parents know a baby unicorn was coming before our protagonist even found the bud? Even so, one would be hard-pressed to resist this little unicorn’s adorable exploits.
No need to wish for another delightful unicorn tale. It’s already been granted. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593571910
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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