A heartwarming, funny lesson in keeping one’s cool.
Working in a china shop tests a bull’s anger-management skills.
A burly bull and former linebacker, Clovis has a “temper as big as he was,” but since he started running his grandmother Grace’s china shop, he feels calmer. Repeating Granny’s mantra—“Grace, grace. Nothing broken to replace”—Clovis carefully unpacks and stacks fine porcelain. One day some former football rivals appear outside the shop, mocking Clovis by calling him a “wimp” and a “bull in a china shop.” His anger rising, Clovis feels the urge to charge, but deep-breathing techniques help him ignore the hecklers. On dusting day, Clovis happily polishes glassware when the hecklers return, insulting his cleaning efforts. Stroking the cat, Clovis again keeps his cool. They come back once more as Clovis arranges a tea display in the window. When the hecklers insult Granny Grace and break her favorite teacup, Clovis is “all out of grace.” Leaving smashed china in his wake, a raging Clovis chases the cowering hecklers into an alley, where he composes himself to channel Grace, then offers them tea, with surprising results. Painterly illustrations cleverly juxtapose Clovis, with his menacing horns and barrel-chested, bulging-biceps, linebacker physique, with the rather fussy china shop. Humorous scenes of Clovis meditating in lotus pose, lighting candles, pouring tea into delicate cups, and arranging flowers contrast with powerful close-ups of his brief descent into raging-bull mode, enhanced by exaggerated facial expressions and dramatic lighting.
A heartwarming, funny lesson in keeping one’s cool. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64567-213-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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