School Library Journal
10/11/2024
K-Gr 3—Children playing football on a snowy afternoon disturb the underground home of a resting groundhog the day before February 2, when the town's mayor arouses the rodent to predict the start of spring. The kids know that the Groundhog's Day prediction is valued, but the critter has left its underground home! They try everything from a spa treatment to snacks to lure it back in this latest addition to the "How to Catch" series. The rhyming text often feels as contrived as the children's play. Colorful, if uninspired, illustrations (based on the designs of Andy Elkerton, who did the art for previous books in the series) depict the winter scenes, anxious children trying to put things right, and the almost naughty groundhog and its cozy abode. VERDICT Not an essential purchase.—Maria B. Salvadore
Kirkus Reviews
2024-08-30
Having attempted to catch the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Gingerbread Man, a group of kids set their sights on a groundhog.
After two score and counting How To Catch books, this latest addition suggests that there’s nothing left to capture. The verses are feeble (“But I’m chilled to my bones deep inside / I feel the wind across my backside”), while the illustrations are mundane. On one page, a child crouches in a drift eating “stick cheese” (apparently because it rhymes with “trees”). Another catches a football thrown by a friend but falls across a stone slab, breaking it in two. Far below, the anthropomorphic groundhog’s breakfast is disturbed; his cup, saucer, creamer, and sugar bowl are jostled. “Tomorrow is his big holiday,” the children note. “Will a shadow fall outside the den? / We need him to answer this riddle: / we know winter ends but not when.” Ultimately, though the intrepid hunters set a series of traps, they’re disappointed to catch only a rabbit. The groundhog, it turns out, is hibernating in an elaborate wrought iron bed. On the very next page, the mayor holds up the beast. How was he caught, then? We don’t know. What was his verdict on winter’s duration? We don’t know. Will the series ever stop? We can only hope. Human characters are diverse.
This catch is fumbled.(Picture book. 4-7)
