Captures the delight of a frigid day.
Fun in sub-freezing conditions.
It is exactly “twenty-three below zero,” Dad announces. Mom leaves, reminding father and son (who narrates) to dress warmly. Donning outdoor garb, the young protagonist also adopts a new nickname: “Freezeman.” Outside, the pair take part in a series of activities, some of which they set up the night before. They watch a helium balloon shrink and popped soap bubbles shed a thin skin. The child uses a frozen banana to hammer in a nail. Boiling water flung from a cup forms a snowy mist; hot maple syrup dropped into snow becomes a candy treat. Back inside, the balloon regains its shape; father and child enjoy the maple candy, along with some hot chocolate, before a roaring fire. The visuals capture the joys of winter. Blocky, printlike art shows the angular figures with berry-blue and pink hair, while clothing, cars, and houses, depicted in neon hues, seem to glow. Sometimes the editorial hand slips, however: The narrator describes putting on a scarf, though the accessory is never depicted. The book doesn’t address safety concerns about venturing out in such extreme weather. The characters’ pale faces are bare, the wind chill is forgotten, and their outdoor time isn’t measured. Still, the joy of winter comes through clearly; many readers will be eager to duplicate the pair’s experiments.
Captures the delight of a frigid day. (information on the activities mentioned) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781681342948
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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