The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread.

A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!” his lamb baas back. (This book was reviewed digitally.)įun enough to read once but without enough substance to last.Ī succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.Ī grumpy bull says, “DADA!” his calf moos back. Fans of the crayon books may delight in another themed installment those who aren’t already fans will likely find it lacking. But the series’ original cleverness is absent here, leaving readers with a perfunctory recitation of attributes. Dot-eyed faces and stick legs on each object turn them all into comical, if similar, personalities. In Daywalt and Jeffers’ now-signature style, the crayon-written text is spare and humorous, while the crayon characters engage with each other against a bare white background, vying for attention. But they come together and agree that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without all of them together. And Brown: cookies and reindeer! At this point, everyone is confused. Snow, anyone? But then there’s Silver: stars and bells. After spending the year being invisible, White isn’t giving up the distinction of association with Christmas. (Santa is depicted as a white-bearded White man.) Then White joins the fray. Green starts by saying that green is for Christmas. Familiar crayon characters argue over which color is the essential Christmas color.

Green Is for Christmas by Drew Daywalt