Holly Jolly Kitty Corn: A Picture Book

4.0

0.0 (0)

265 0

Write Review Add to favorites

Author(s)

Shannon Hale

Co-Authors / Illustrators

LeUyen Pham

Publisher

Abrams Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

September 23, 2025

ISBN

978-1419768798

Buy This Book

This festive kitty-corn tale features Christmas decorations, gingerbread houses, one (almost) perfect tree—and the magic of true friendship.

The best part of Christmas is the merry music! No, it’s the gingerbread! No, it’s definitely decorating the tree!

Kitty and Unicorn can’t wait to spend their first Christmas together! But try as they might, they can’t seem to agree on their favorite festivities.

Will the magical best friends pull off the perfect Christmas, or will all their plans come tip-timber-crashing down?

The magical, bestselling team of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham return with a cozy and heartwarming holiday story for kitty-corns everywhere.

Editor review

1 review

Celebrating with Friends' Preferences in Mind

October 15, 2025 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Kitty is super excited to spend her favorite holiday with her new best friend, Unicorn. They are excited for all of the different activities, and glad that they share the same tastes. When Unicorn plays a favorite album, however, Kitty falls asleep! After Kitty spends a lot of time crafting an intricate gingerbread village, Unicorn plops his slapdash house down and knocks out Kitty's whole block! Gecko and Parakeet chime in that perhaps the holiday will be stressful, but Kitty is bound and determined to share the same joy with Unicorn. When the crew tries to pick out the perfect Christmas tree, Kitty foregoes a small one, thinking that unicorn wants a big one. Hauling home what GEcko and Parakeet call "a monstrosity", the group realizes they don't have enough ornaments to decorate such an enormous tree. Kitty suggests they make some. Panicked, Kitty adds all manner of decorations to the tree until it becomes so heavy that it comes down with a crash! The two friends finally confess to each other that they got the huge tree to try to make the other person happy. With peace restored, they curl up to eat gingerbread and fall asleep to Christmas music.

Good Points

I love how careful Kitty and Unicorn are of each other's feelings, and the lengths to which Kitty tries to accomodate what she thinks Unicorn wants. Even though this particular episode has some troubles, the idea of encouraging children to make their friends happy is eventually underscored with the importance of communication.

Pham's illustrations are always a delight. Kitty's bright pink fur and Unicorn's purple mane contrast nicely with the seasonal red and green of the season. While most of the pictures are against a white background, I loved the final pages with the two friends curled up together in a classic holiday scene complete with a fireplace and a window showing a starry night sky.

Readers who are looking forward to the holidays and want more stories with some festive twists and humor will enjoy this along with titles like Christodoulou and Stamatiadi's Meowy Christmas, Fenske's Candy Corn Christmas, or Farrel and Tafuni's How the Gherkins Stole Christmas.