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Summary
Summary
From beloved author Katherine Rundell comes a clever, funny, and poignant picture book about a lonely little boy who wishes not to be alone on Christmas.
A young boy's Christmas Eve wish on a shooting star leads to an adventure with an ever-hungry rocking horse, an angel whose wings are molting, a robin who has forgotten how to sing, and a rusting tin drummer boy in Katherine Rundell's classic Christmas story, with Emily Sutton's gorgeous paintings.
Author Notes
Katherine Rundell was born in 1987. She is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Her books include The Girl Savage and The Wolf Wilder. She received several awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Award in 2014 for Rooftoppers, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, and the Costa Award for Children's book in 2017 for The Explorers.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Left alone by his preoccupied parents on Christmas Eve, Theo discovers four worn ornaments at the bottom of the decoration box: a tin soldier, an angel, a rocking horse, and a robin. Then a shooting star blazes by. "I wish to be un-alone," Theo says aloud. Instantly, the decorations come to life. The rocking horse eats everything in sight ("pine needles, electrical cables, and the bottoms of curtains"), the robin yearns to sing, the angel to fly, and the tin soldier to find his love. Rundell (The Explorer) spins her tale with British civility ("Sorry," Theo apologizes as the Christmas ornaments lay waste to his piano teacher's sitting room, "Sorry!"), and the group's exchanges provide smiles ("I have a feeling you're supposed to brush your hair if you're hoping to fall in love," the soldier worries). With delicately brushed lines, detailed ink-and-watercolor vignettes by Sutton (A First Book of the Sea) supply just the right snow-covered, holly-sprigged atmosphere for a series of magical transformations-and some very real love. Ages 5-9. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
A lonely young boy makes a wish on a shooting star and finds himself in the company of Christmas tree ornaments come to life. With a tin soldier, rocking horse, angel, and robin, Theo has an adventure throughout his snow-covered city on Christmas Eve. Sutton's beautifully intricate watercolor and ink art and the high-quality book production add charm to an otherwise sentimental Christmas story. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A little boy finds a box of old ornaments that come to life on a special Christmas Eve.Theo's parents have left him alone with a distracted babysitter. Despondent, Theo makes a wish on a shooting star "to be un-alone." A rocking horse, a robin, a tin soldier, and an angel wake up to keep him company. Each has its own distinctive personalitythe rocking horse eats everything in sight, the little robin has forgotten how to sing, the angel would love to have real feathers for her wings, and the soldier pines for his own true love. They head outside for an evening full of joyful adventures. Rundell's writing is delightful, but it's marred by several non sequiturs and discrepancies between text and art. Illustrations throughout clearly show Theo clad in striped pajamas. Yet the text says "Theo thought about his heart, beating hard under his four layers of sweaters." When Theo and his ornament friends find a princess doll in a toy store, the line "Theo lifted down her box" is followed by "Theo looked up at the doll," who's depicted in place on the upper shelf. But great care was given to the book's beautiful design. Spacious text wraps around illustrations; wide borders are sometimes filled with pictures, and the pages open up to perfectly placed, colorful double-page spreads. Theo, his family, and the humanoid animate toys all present white.A heartwarming tale of the magic of Christmas, but adults will need to be ready to help children past the rough spots. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
Its time for a fresh batch of holiday stories, sprinkled with tales of snow. GOOD MORNING, SNOWPLOW! By Deborah Bruss. Illustrated by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson. Don't be fooled by the title - the action takes place over the course of one night, when a rural town is covered in deep snow. That means no rest for the snowplow, whose driver jumps inside, his dog by his side, to get to work. Written in punchy, succinct rhymes, Bruss's text captures the primal appeal of both snow and snowplowing, while Fancher and Johnson's dazzling art makes the book feel special, a celebration of winter nighttime beauty and the people - and machines - who cheerfully rise to the occasion when the going gets snowy. 32 pp. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 5) LITTLE OWL'S SNOW Written and illustrated by Divya Srinivasan. This lovely third picture book featuring the tiny, giant-eyed Little Owl begins in late autumn and quickly plunges into winter, when many of Little Owl's friends are unavailable thanks to hibernation or migration, and life begins to seem a little dull. Even the thrill of the first snowfall wears off. But with help from Mama Owl's wise advice, Little Owl adjusts to the quiet and solitude and learns to appreciate the snow. Srinivasan paces her gentle story perfectly, and her simple digital art is appealing, with cute, watchful creatures and soft-edged shapes. 32 pp. Viking. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 5) A WHISPER IN THE SNOW By Kate Westerlund. Illustrated by Feridun Oral. Three rabbits and two mice (twins) hear a whisper under the snow. They dig and find a wet, sad stuffed bear, so they pack him in a little wagon and cart him to a friend's house. There they fix him up, get him dressed and enlist some bird friends to find the child who has lost him. Even the truly jaded may melt a bit over this charming, exquisitely illustrated Beatrix Potter-esque Christmas tale, which wears its holiday message and its life lessons (teamwork, compassion, critical thinking) as lightly as the season's first dusting of snow. 32 pp. minedition. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 8) TOUGH COOKIE: A CHRISTMAS STORY Written and illustrated by Edward Hemingway. What if the candy-studded cookie in the classic "Gingerbread Man" tale actually tasted terrible - because he was (spoiler alert) really a tree ornament, baked with glue and salt? That's the clever premise of this entertaining story about a sugar cookie and a fox who spits him out ("Blech! You taste awful.... plus, I think I just broke my tooth"). The book delivers a parable of selfacceptance, as well as recipes for sugar cookies - both the edible and ornamental varieties. 40 pp. Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8) LITTLE FOX IN THE SNOW By Jonathan London. Illustrated by Daniel M ¡yares. Foxes and snow are a picture-book staple, but this one is different: It's both winter-cozy and a realistic hunting story. "Hunger draws you like a bow," the book's narrator says to the little fox. "You must hunt! " A white hare - "no match for a fleet-footed fox" - soon fills his belly. Miyares, whose watercolor art is as stunning as always, shows a bit of red staining the stream as the fox takes a cold drink of water after his meal. 40 pp. Candlewick. $16.99. (Ages 4 to 8) I GOT THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT By Connie Schofield-Morrison. Illustrated by Frank Morrison. This refreshing ode to the Christmas spirit does not (as so many do) lament the lack of it these days. Instead, an ebullient girl with pompom pigtails and a purple parka tells how she feels and shares it: caroling, eating hot candied nuts from a street vendor, donating coins, ice skating: "I twirled and swirled around the spirit." Morrison's felicitous art bursts off each page with a pop of energy. 32 pp. Bloomsbury. $16.99. (Ages 4 to 8) THE BROKEN ORNAMENT Written and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. Jack is a kid who sees Christmas as a bottomless goody bag. When he shatters an ornament that meant a lot to his mom, she's crushed, but Jack is clueless until a fairy grants him all his wishes for more, more, more. Then she shows him the moving story behind the ornament, and he changes his Christmas tune. The story can seem as jarringly jam-packed as Jack's Christmas list, but it drives home its message heartily, with a maximalist retro visual style. 48 pp. Simon & Schuster. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8) ONE CHRISTMAS WISH By Katherine Rundell. Illustrated by Emily Sutton. Theo, whose busy parents are out on Christmas Eve, finds a box of old ornaments. He wishes on a shooting star to be "un-alone," and they come to life. Adventures, mishaps and true connections follow. Rundell's ("Into the Jungle," "Rooftoppers") lively, eloquent prose and Sutton's warm, delicate art make for an enchanting chapter-book read-aloud. 64 pp. Simon & Schuster. $18.99. (Ages 5 to 9) maria Russo is the children's books editor at the Book Review.