Enjoyable fare for youngsters who already have a concept of the holiday.
The loud, chaotic celebration of Purim and its companion story is recreated in a farm-animal play that results in a surprising development.
After Farmer Max leaves to attend a Purim play, the animals decide to stage their own version. Chicken offers to direct, orchestrating Horse as the King Ahashuerus, Duck as the blushing Queen Esther, bearded Goat as Mordecai, cows as the mooing noisemakers and geese as the audience. Casting a somewhat sensitive Sheep as the evil Haman requires some explanation from Chicken as she retells the holiday’s story through her patient direction. “They aren’t mooing at YOU...They’re mooing at evil Haman.” Still fretting over her role, Sheep retreats off stage to dress in, yes, her wolf’s costume, while a new character, Fox, suddenly appears on the scene with real evil intentions. Confusion quickly moves to realization, with Duck’s bravado leading a flurry of noisy animal antics to scare the fox away before Farmer Max returns with a basket of hamantaschen. Gouache cartoons of wide-eyed, long-lashed characters in muted browns, blacks and tans add enough charm to the required pathos of the text’s circumvented telling for this menagerie’s megillah.
Enjoyable fare for youngsters who already have a concept of the holiday. (Picture books/religion. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7613-4514-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
A high-spirited night free of frights.
Actor Plaza and writer/producer Murphy join forces for another bewitching picture book.
Halloween is always a dismal time for Pheenie the witch, because her parties are such failures—until the day spunky young Luna Lopez, who yearns to be a helpful bruja like her grandma in Puerto Rico, appears on her porch. The two strike a bargain: Pheenie will instruct Luna in spellcasting in return for Luna’s help planning and organizing a properly spook-tacular event. Luna helps Pheenie clean up the house and encourages her to substitute tasty cider for wormy trick-or-treat apples and to put out kid-friendly snacks like candy corn and cookies in place of the witch’s typical candied spiders and baked troll fingers. The effervescent narrative is further stoked by several rhymed spells and suitably energetic illustrations. Peck sets the tale in a racially diverse urban neighborhood, and as the witching hour approaches (at around eight p.m., according to the clock on the mantel), in troops a group of eager-looking young partygoers in upscale costumes to play hide-and-seek with real ghosts and dance to a goblin band. It’s a Halloween hullaballoo! Elderly Pheenie is pale-skinned; Luna is tan-skinned.
A high-spirited night free of frights. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780593693018
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sugary uplift, shrink-wrapped for the masses.
An elusive new quarry leads the How To Catch… kids on a merry chase through a natural history museum.
Taking at least a step away from the “hunters versus prey” vibe of previous entries in the popular series, the racially diverse group of young visitors dashes through various museum halls in pursuit of the eponymous dino—whose quest to “spread kindness and joy ’round the world” takes the form of a mildly tumultuous museum tour. In most of Elkerton’s overly sweet, color-saturated scenes, only portions of the Loveosaurus, who is purple and covered with pink hearts, are visible behind exhibits or lumbering off the page. But the children find small enticements left behind, from craft supplies to make cards for endangered species to pictures of smiley faces, candy heart–style personal notes (“You Rock!” “Give Hugs”), and, in the hall of medieval arms and armor, a sign urging them to “Be Honest Be Kind.” The somewhat heavy-handed lesson comes through loud and clear. “There’s a message, he wants us to think,” hints Walstead to clue in more obtuse readers…and concluding scenes of smiling people young and otherwise exchanging hugs and knuckle bumps, holding doors for a wheelchair rider, and dancing through clouds of sparkles indicate that they, at least, have gotten it. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sugary uplift, shrink-wrapped for the masses. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 9781728268781
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
