A lively celebration of a popular holiday with some craft ideas and history.
Having covered Thanksgiving, Christmas, unicorns, and more, Fliess now turns to Halloween for the latest in her crafty how-to series.
A group of diverse children prepares for the holiday and then starts trick-or-treating against background tones of orange, black, pale green, and purple. Upbeat text in verse encourages readers to pick a costume such as a mermaid, princess, knight, monster, cat, or bat. When the children hear a noise coming from upstairs, they decide to investigate. What if they encounter something scary? One child dresses up as a ghost; accompanying instructions tell readers how to create their own ghost costume. Everyone is taken aback to meet a real ghost, but the ghost turns out to be “CUTE and KIND” and begs to join in, claiming, “I’m a lot like you!” Agreeing (“we wouldn’t want to leave someone behind”), the kids set off, and there’s enough candy and fun for all. The trick-or-treating takes place in flat, unspecific settings; doors (and pages) are enthusiastically decorated with stars, skulls, headstones, spiderwebs, and jack-o’-lanterns. The last three double-page spreads detail the history of the holiday, its introduction to the U.S. by Irish immigrants, the traditions of trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving, and instructions for making a ghost costume or puppet out of a tattered sheet—much better than the dubious directions given earlier (trace a circle where?). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lively celebration of a popular holiday with some craft ideas and history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781510774087
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Effectively captures the excitement surrounding Valentine’s Day.
A collection of poems follows a group of elementary school students as they prepare for and celebrate Valentine’s Day.
One student starts the day by carefully choosing clothing in pink, purple, or red, while a family kicks off the morning with a breakfast of red, heart-shaped pancakes. At school, children create valentines until party time finally arrives with lots of yummy treats. The students give valentines to their school friends, of course, but we also see one child making a “special delivery” to a pet, a stuffed animal, family members, and even the crossing guard. The poems also extend the Valentine’s celebration to the community park, where other couples—some older, one that appears to be same-sex—are struck by cupid’s “magical love arrows.” Note the child running away: “Blech!” Not everyone wants to “end up in love!!!” But the spread devoted to Valentine’s jokes will please readers more interested in humor than in romance and inspire children to create their own jokes. To make the celebration complete, the last pages of the book contain stickers and a double-sided “BEE MINE!” valentine that readers can, with adult help, cut out. Cheery and kid-friendly, the poems can be read independently or from cover to cover as a full story. The cartoonish illustrations include lots of hearts and emphasize the growing Valentine’s Day excitement, depicting a diverse classroom that includes students who use wheelchairs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Effectively captures the excitement surrounding Valentine’s Day. (Picture-book poetry. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-38717-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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