Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Brett celebrates the holidays with the cheery hero of Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends and his friend Matti, who once again bails out his confectionary pal. When Gingerbread Baby hears about the Christmas Festival, he announces that he will sing with his Gingerbread Band (which doesn't exist), so Matti bakes up a batch of gingerbread instruments. Their performance is a hit, until a girl identifies them as cookies, and Matti quickly camouflages them with snow to prevent the audience from devouring them. Gingerbread Baby taunts the crowd to chase him, and the clever hiding spot he finds, revealed in a festive Christmas tree pop-up, lets readers do a little seek-and-find of their own. In her signature style, Brett frames her pages with intricate themed borders that supplement or foreshadow the story's action; featuring candies, gingerbread, and ornate loops of icing, they look good enough to eat. Ages 3-5. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-In this third book about Gingerbread Baby, the cookie takes part in the town's Christmas Festival. Matti bakes a batch of gingerbread instruments, and Gingerbread Baby takes the stage with his band. All is well until a little girl realizes that these instruments are edible. Matti disguises the instruments, and Gingerbread Baby hides in the foldout Christmas tree. VERDICT Brett's signature border designs and detailed scenes of a folkloric Swiss village make this more suitable for sharing at home than at storytime venues with larger audiences.-Virginia Walter, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Problem: the Gingerbread Baby doesnt have a group of musicians with whom to perform in the Christmas Festival. His (human) friend Mattis solution: bake a band! New problem: the band looks dangerously delicious. Will gingerbread be gingertoast? As usual in Bretts work (The Mitten, rev. 11/89; The Hat; and many others), theres lots going on visually, and to focus only on the central story is to miss much of the peripheral action. Expressive figures and faces made of candy in the side panels, for example, are a highlight of the watercolor and gouache illustrations. So is a foldout Christmas tree that doubles as a search-and-find puzzle. If you like your stories simple, this one may not be for you, but if you enjoy perusable pages, this is a gift that keeps on giving. shoshana flax (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Bretts Gingerbread Baby skips in for his third story, this time celebrating Christmas in a Swiss Alpine village setting with a band of anthropomorphic gingerbread instruments.The Gingerbread Babys human pal, a white boy named Matti, helps his cookie friend achieve his wish for his own band by baking and decorating a batch of gingerbread musical-instrument ornaments. The cookies all perform in the bandstand at the town Christmas festival in front of a large crowd of dancing townspeople in traditional costumes and friendly animals. A girl in a red coat points out that the instruments are really cookies, setting off an extended chase for tasty snacks, as in traditional versions of The Gingerbread Man. Matti turns the ornaments into little snowmen to hide them from the townspeople, and the Gingerbread Baby himself escapes and hides in the branches of the village Christmas tree, decorated with dozens of ornaments and sweets. The Christmas tree is a large pop-up feature within the last spread, constructed of laminated paper that should hold up to multiple Christmas seasons. Brett again uses her signature style of ornamental borders and side panels to extend the story, with borders of frosting and candies and panels including dancing children of different ethnic groups. Fans of Bretts intricately detailed illustration style will find this a sweet treat. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
