A sprightly set of illustrations from the always inventive Pearson (The Purple Hat, 1997, etc.) offer hints on one of the biggest mysteries of the ages—Saint Nick’s summer job. Joe comes to town each spring to open up Joe’s Snack Bar, selling hot dogs, ice cream, and fries to an enthusiastic and varied summertime public. Every fall, he disappears, and folks wonder where he goes. Breaking into rhyme, the townspeople offer various scenarios: “ ‘He’s gone to the moon!’/cried tiny June,” or having tea with the queen, “whispered Molly McLeen” or off to the pyramids, “yelled all the Biddy kids.” Each spread is full of friendly colors and the wiggly details of people, places, and cats. Joe and his trademark food items appear in each, too, with nibbles tossed to the alligators in Okefenokee or the dolphins from a cruise ship. Joe returns, of course, the following spring, red-checked, round-bellied, and with a full white beard. Just in case readers still don’t know how he spends the winters, the last, wordless page offers a can’t-miss clue, and the reindeer like ice cream, too. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-38319-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
paper 0-8027-8697 Rockwell’s story of a young boy searching for the perfect pumpkin is more of a meditation than a story to evoke the spirit of a season. A boy is in pursuit of the perfect pumpkin: “big and round and orange as a setting sun.” At the farmer’s market he searches until he discovers just the right one, which had rolled off to one side: “I think it was waiting there just for me.” He takes it home and then, with his mother handling the knife, they craft a fine jack-o’-lantern that glows mysteriously in the night. Halsey’s pretty paper sculptures give the story visual snap, with their intriguing shadow play and sharp relief. Rockwell’s occasional stabs at seasonal atmospherics—the smell of pumpkins baking (the mother has bought ten little ones for a pie), apples ripening, the turning leaves—only falteringly conjure an autumnal mood. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8027-8696-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
From Powell (A Bold Carnivore, 1995) comes Gary Paulsen-like insight: Once a sled dog, always a sled dog, for although a Newfoundland named Cora is getting too old to pull, her owners can’t get the hearty dog to quit. Every Christmas the dogs help a mother, father, and Susan bring home a Christmas tree from the snowy woods. This year, Cora is not hitched up with the other two sled dogs in her bright red harness. She refuses to stay home, and follows the family into the forest. At first Cora gets underfoot; the family doesn’t understand what she is trying to do. But when the tree is selected, chopped down, and tied to the sled, Cora leads the other dogs—helping in spirit, if not in fact. Powell’s colorful woodcuts portray a crisp snow-filled north woods with deep blue shadows and green pines. The Yuletide setting is background dressing; the interactions of dogs and family predominate. An affectionate, unusual story. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8075-5968-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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