Reassuring, inviting bedtime fare.
As winter approaches, a little bear tries to avoid hibernation.
With cool winds blowing, skies graying, and geese honking farewell, Mama tells Small Bear, “It’s time for bed.” Watching Mouse scurry by, Small Bear asks, “If she’s not sleeping, why must I?” Even Chipmunk’s awake gathering nuts. Mama explains that Mouse is rushing to rest in her grass nest and Chipmunk’s storing nuts before going to sleep. When Small Bear sees Skunk and Hare awake and romping together, Mama adds that soon Skunk will slumber underground and Hare will weather winter in a hollow log. Spying Badger and Old Racoon, Small Bear argues again to stay awake. Mama tells Small Bear that Badger and Racoon will also sleep soon. But Small Bear just doesn’t want to hide inside all winter. Mama finally convinces Small Bear that bears need to sleep in winter so they can awaken to spring. Composed in rhyming couplets, the spare text evokes autumn’s final days, preparations for winter hibernation, Small Bear’s reluctance to accept hibernation, and Mama’s patient responses. Simple, quiet illustrations executed in a soft, elegant, swirling style trace the transition from tawny autumn’s bareness to early winter’s silvery wonderland. Scenes of Mouse, Chipmunk, Skunk, Hare, Badger, Racoon, and, eventually, Small Bear and Mama snuggling safely inside their respective cozy winter dens should provoke useful parallels and opportunities for parents to cajole their little ones to sleep.
Reassuring, inviting bedtime fare. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0919-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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