A Saturday-morning-cartoon introduction to squirrels and scatter hoarding.
Follow along as a squirrel gathers and hides food for the winter, finds and shares it during the wintry weather, and “plants” food for future winters.
The changing leaves and the narrator’s thickening coat prompt the squirrel to start caching food. Acorns, maple seeds, hazelnuts, tulip bulbs, some berries, and just a pinch of birdseed (“Birds need food for winter too”) get gathered and buried in many different hiding spots for the narrator and the other squirrels to later “seek and find.” When the snow covers the ground, the squirrels sniff out each hoard and return to their hole in a tree to feast. In the spring, caches that weren’t found can sprout and grow, sometimes producing another food source for the next winter, in this case, some pumpkins. The meter is bouncy, but the verses were clearly written with rhyme rather than meaning or reading ease in mind: “Eeek! A dog! I dash away. / He barks as up I flee. / ‘You can’t catch me from down there,’ / I chirp at him with glee.” Leschnikoff’s colorful digital mixed media illustrations highlight the cartoon narrator’s larger-than-life personality, the squirrel’s every facial expression and posed paw speaking volumes. Backmatter fills out the spare facts given in the text about squirrels’ caching behavior, their sharing and stealing food, and nine different squirrel species found around the world. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A Saturday-morning-cartoon introduction to squirrels and scatter hoarding. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728235370
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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