10. A Mouse Family Christmas

  

10. A Mouse Family Christmas. Deborah Underwood. 2025. 40 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, picture book, holiday, Christmas] 

First sentence: On Christmas Eve, the house on the corner was quiet downstairs...and joyful upstairs, as the big, bustling Mouse family prepared for Christmas.

Premise/plot: A mouse family makes a lonely [old] man happy during a snow storm when they decorate his Christmas tree in the night.

My thoughts: Is it odd to be reviewing a Christmas book in January? Perhaps. In my own defense, I put the book on hold months ago and I've been patiently waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. I had every hope that it would be cataloged and shelved before Christmas. Alas. The good news? The book is delightful. I love the story, the characters, the illustrations. I enjoyed seeing the upstairs/downstairs stories. This one reminded me of Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree and The Tailor of Gloucester.

 

© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers

9. Chooch Helped

 

 

9. Chooch Helped. Andrea L. Rogers. Illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz. 2024. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, siblings, family, picture book]

First sentence: This is the baby. We call him Chooch. The word for boy or son in Cherokee is atsutsa.  

Premise/plot: A sister is terribly, horribly annoyed with her younger brother--or bother as the case may be. The book is set within a Cherokee family/community; while the book is not wholly bilingual, the book certainly has an emphasis on introducing new words to readers. 

My thoughts: This one won/earned the Caldecott Medal in 2025. (The awards were announced earlier this morning). It is totally normal for me to be unimpressed with the winner. My artistic taste--or artistic eye--for better or worse never has aligned at all--not even a little bit--with the majority of winners. What I absolutely love, love, love and am drawn to is never what the judges are looking for--apparently. Which is fine. To each their own. Picture books have always had the most potential for being polarizing because you've got TEXT and ART. 

The story is simple, relatable, enjoyable enough. The art just wasn't for me--personally. You may love it. I think anyone with a sibling can appreciate this one.

© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers

8. Silent Movie

  

 

8. Silent Movie. Avi. Illustrated by C.B. Mordan. 2003. 64 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book, 4 stars, historical picture book, immigration]

First sentence: One hundred years ago people from all over the world are moving to the United States of America. Some want adventure. Some are fleeing hardship. Others come because they believe America is the "Promised Land." Among those who seek a better life is a family from Sweden. The first to go is Papa...

Premise/plot: Silent Movie is not a wordless picture book. However illustrations--told within black and white frames--do the heavy lifting in terms of story telling and characterization. The words assist the artwork.

The premise is relatively simple: A mother and son who have recently arrived in America--New York City, I believe--struggle to find the "Papa" who came before. Relatively alone and without resources, the pair struggles to find a way to make it. A chance--oh so fortunate--encounter with a movie maker (director?) leads to a happy ending! The boy is cast in a silent movie and the father recognizes his son on screen and the family is able to reunite!

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. The illustrations and text pair wonderfully together to convey the story of immigration experience at the turn of the twentieth century. (The story is set circa 1909.) 

This one might be appreciated more by readers who have seen at least one or two silent movies and understand the concept. However, there's no reason why this picture book couldn't come first and serve as an introduction to the early days of movies. 

Some/many silent movies are "shorts" and are about twenty minutes in length. There are silent movies for just about any genre. 

This one could be read by a wider range of ages.

 

© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers

7. Lefty: A Story That Is Not All Right

Lefty: A Story That Is Not All Right. Mo Willems. Illustrated by Dan Santat. 2024. [December] 40 pages. [Source: Library] [2 stars, picture books, nonfiction]

First sentence: Hi, Righty! Did you know...there was a time when people could get into trouble...really, really BIG trouble--

Premise/plot: At its most literal (taken at face value) this is a pun-filled nonfiction picture book about perceptions through the centuries of being left handed (as opposed to right handed). 

My thoughts: I don't know if I'm disappointed because it is Mo Willems and I was expecting to absolutely love it above and beyond OR if it is just truly not my taste. Perhaps a bit of both.

While I almost-almost appreciated some of the illustrations, for the most part they just were not for me. I found them weird, odd, over-the-top. Of course, art is in the eyes of the beholder. Some readers may find the illustrations to be a great fit and wonderful.

The text was okay, fine, nice enough. Again, I am a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE fan of Mo Willem--usually. Like his writing usually appeals to me above and beyond. These are books that I reach for again, again, again. The writing was just so so-so. There was one scene that made me smile--the one about cookies. But for the most part, I wasn't super impressed.

The subject is perhaps not the most thrilling, HOWEVER, I do think it's a fine subject. I don't know that left-handed prejudice is alive and well, a current, relevant "thing." I don't think it's been much of an issue for decades. That is, I think it's been steadily declining as an issue for decades. It just is--and no one really cares.

 I do think that this book is not to be taken at its most literal. There are a lot of elephants in the room (not literal, sadly, I wouldn't have minded a cameo from Elephant). I do think the book is a way to talk about other subjects. This tone is heavy-handed (pun-intended). In this sense I think it's a bit didactic. Here's the thing--and I've said this before--a conclusion can be one you agree with (or one you don't agree with, for that matter), and if it's written in a didactic way it can be a bit of a turn-off.

© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers

6. What-a-baby

 

6. What-a-baby First Words Book. (Whataburger). Blue Star Press. 22 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, board book, novelty book]

First sentence:  Whataburger. Lettuce. Tomato. Onion. Pickles. Patty. Cheese. Bacon. 

Premise/plot: A board book of vocabulary words taken from the Whataburger menu. This novelty book for the youngest of fans may delight adults more than little ones, however, any time spent reading aloud to little ones is a bonus. 

What would make this one even better would be if there was an audio book read by Matthew McConaughey. 

My thoughts: I enjoyed this one. I thought it was fun in a novelty-silly way. The illustrations could be better, could be worse. They have a retro-dotted style about them. I liked the wide range of words included. 

 

 

© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers