Cute enough overall, but Cat’s previous outings are stronger titles for little readers.
When Cat’s shoe goes missing, Cat and Bird take a ride to find it.
Purcell’s skateboarding Cat from Cat’s New Hat (2020) is on another adventure with friend Bird, this time looking for Cat’s missing shoe. As the pair skateboard along, they encounter a few possible shoes that turn out to be not quite right until finally finding the match on a monster’s foot. Purcell offers little readers opportunities to notice similarities and differences. Some shoes are the wrong color, others the wrong size (and the wrong color). This is a nice way to engage readers in the hunt. The story is told in a mix of narrative and speech and thought balloons, the latter containing interactions between Cat and Bird, and it reads just right. Those highlights aside, the text begins with rhythm and rhyme, but it’s not consistently carried out. Cat’s location is very specifically indicated with cacti, but then that seems irrelevant to the adventure. Cat and Bird encounter an owl and snakes before meeting the monster, which readers have been primed to imagine will be another animal thanks to other context clues. While this surprise is surely part of the silliness, it also feels a bit misplaced. In a break from previous, nongendered titles, here Cat is assigned a masculine pronoun.
Cute enough overall, but Cat’s previous outings are stronger titles for little readers. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-80036-010-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Tiny Seed
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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.
