A starry and heartfelt journey that will carry many rapt children through pre-Christmas bedtimes.
The beloved Steam Train is freighted with holiday cheer.
A rabbitlike creature sits up in surprise as a distant train approaches over the frozen landscape. A crew of cartoon monkeys, kangaroos, a purple elephant, a dinosaur, an extremely long-necked giraffe, and more load the boxcars with crates, and the train lifts off into the sky. An enthusiastic tanker team stirs some dubiously varied but sweet-smelling ingredients into a magic brew whose fragrance wafts through the air, lifting the hearts and spirits of those below. The festive music that the creatures play spreads joy as decorations rain down, and “every bauble, bow, and strand / creates a Christmas wonderland.” The rhythm occasionally falters, but the robust rhymes keep the stock rolling. Rinker’s text avoids the commercial side of Christmas, instead highlighting the emotional meaning of the holiday—“what you cannot hold or touch,” “laughter, love, and memories,” “the joy of friends and families,” and “faith in what is strong and sure”—as the train circles the Earth, “wreathed / in peace and love.” The illustrations bring dazzling magic to the narrative, with stars and snowflakes early on, then gusts of golden glitter—the freight carried and showered down—giving a sparkle to every page.
A starry and heartfelt journey that will carry many rapt children through pre-Christmas bedtimes. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781797227030
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
High-quality, inclusive illustrations make this one stand out.
From the changing season to decorations and costumes, children anticipate Halloween.
Little readers will enjoy all of the familiar markers of the season included in this book: falling leaves, jack-o’-lanterns, Halloween costumes, candy, and trick-or-treating. Everett’s rhyming couplets bob along safely, offering nothing that will wow but enough to keep the pages turning. It’s Wen’s illustrations that give the most to readers, full of bustling scenes and lovely details. A double-page spread of the children in town in front of the candy store includes jars with individually drawn treats and other festive delicacies. The townwide celebration features instruments, creative costumes, and a diverse crowd of people. There are three children who appear as the focus of the illustrations, though there are many secondary characters. One bespectacled White child is drawn in a manual wheelchair, another has dark brown skin, the third presents Asian. The child in the wheelchair is shown as a full participant. Readers will enjoy spotting spooks like a vampire, goblin, and werewolf, as they sometimes appear in the background and other times blend in with the crowd. The familiar trappings of Halloween paired with the robust illustrations will have little readers wanting to reread even if the content itself is not startlingly new.
High-quality, inclusive illustrations make this one stand out. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0586-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
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