A serene, exquisite ode to togetherness—and a gentle gateway to haiku for young readers.
In Japan’s snowy Nagano mountains, a troop of nihonzaru (Japanese macaques) settle into their favorite hot spring for what should be a long, peaceful soak.
Tokuda-Hall relies on strict 5-7-5 haiku throughout, using each three-line stanza as both caption and quiet narration: “Snow falls thick and cold. / Nihonzaru make their way. / Hot springs await them.” That hushed, declarative voice holds throughout, broken only when a baby monkey’s splash sparks onomatopoeia and exclamation points, unsettling the troop until grooming restores the calm. Imamura’s illustrations, created from gouache washes layered with pastel crayon, aren’t outlined; the monkeys are depicted as soft, rounded masses of brown and gold, their pink faces reduced to simple ovals marked with a few economical lines. Texture comes from the crayon’s grain: Snow is built from masses of small white flecks and soft piles, fur from short warm strokes of ochre and umber. Gold-leafed pine boughs against pale, hazy skies recall the flattened, decorative landscapes of traditional Japanese screen painting, while the color scheme tracks the day’s arc—warm and golden early on, cooling with piles of snow against pale pink faces that glow against the deep indigo water. Wide landscapes give way to a few intimate close-ups, nowhere more vivid than the baby monkey’s arms flung overhead, mid-splash, filling the page.
A serene, exquisite ode to togetherness—and a gentle gateway to haiku for young readers. (author’s note) (Informational picture book/poetry. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781536230895
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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