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WE'RE GOING ON A SLEIGH RIDE

Name: WE'RE GOING ON A SLEIGH RIDE
Author: Martha Mumford
ISBN: 978-1-5476-1122-5

A LIFT-THE-FLAP ADVENTURE

From the Bunny Adventures series

by Martha Mumford ; illustrated by Cherie Zamazing ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2022

Charming visuals and manipulatives make this Christmas tale highly appealing to little readers.

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Rabbits ride along on Santa’s sleigh helping deliver gifts.

The rhyming lift-the-flap book shows a White-presenting Santa and friends flying past penguins and over polar bears, zipping over coastal towns, leaving presents as they go. Every other page invites readers to help find hidden gifts beneath camouflaged flaps—in a grandfather clock door, on a boat, and behind a shuttered window, for example. Though these gifts are spread throughout the book, the text beneath the flaps keeps a running count, ending with 10 presents beneath the tree. Though it doesn’t inhibit the flow of the book, this addition might be tough for little readers to follow and keep track of. Zamazing’s illustrations are darling. The bunny helpers are oh-so-sweet, each with an individually designed scarf and sweater. Each page is full of fun details, like a penguin pulling on the sleigh’s string of Christmas lights, the dwindling pile of gifts as the team flies on, and the squares on the quilts of the sleeping bunnies as Santa delivers presents to the little ones. Children will delight in finding and flipping the flaps, and each page invites readers to linger over and absorb the lovely artwork. The pages are extra thick, so while this title isn’t as sturdy as a board book, it should endure some rough handling.

Charming visuals and manipulatives make this Christmas tale highly appealing to little readers. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5476-1122-5

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S POETRY

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HALLOWEEN IS COMING!

by Cal Everett ; illustrated by Lenny Wen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2021

High-quality, inclusive illustrations make this one stand out.

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From the changing season to decorations and costumes, children anticipate Halloween.

Little readers will enjoy all of the familiar markers of the season included in this book: falling leaves, jack-o’-lanterns, Halloween costumes, candy, and trick-or-treating. Everett’s rhyming couplets bob along safely, offering nothing that will wow but enough to keep the pages turning. It’s Wen’s illustrations that give the most to readers, full of bustling scenes and lovely details. A double-page spread of the children in town in front of the candy store includes jars with individually drawn treats and other festive delicacies. The townwide celebration features instruments, creative costumes, and a diverse crowd of people. There are three children who appear as the focus of the illustrations, though there are many secondary characters. One bespectacled White child is drawn in a manual wheelchair, another has dark brown skin, the third presents Asian. The child in the wheelchair is shown as a full participant. Readers will enjoy spotting spooks like a vampire, goblin, and werewolf, as they sometimes appear in the background and other times blend in with the crowd. The familiar trappings of Halloween paired with the robust illustrations will have little readers wanting to reread even if the content itself is not startlingly new.

High-quality, inclusive illustrations make this one stand out. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-7282-0586-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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HAPPY EASTER FROM THE CRAYONS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023

Let these crayons go back into their box.

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The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.

Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)