The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof.
Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude. In this illustrator’s world, mind-blowing art comes from accident, if you’re brave enough (like Max) to smile and take an awkward leap. Treble Caldecott winner Wiesner delivers a wildly trippy, funny and original interpretation of the artistic process. Children will giggle and marvel at each transformation, ogling some images that bleed beyond page borders and others that appear within crisp panels, hanging in white space like artwork on a gallery wall.
With a tug on the tail, Art’s figure unravels completely, and Max, the gleeful amateur, must use instinct and imagination to re-create his friend. In successive efforts to help restore him, Max inadvertently reduces Art to washes of watercolor and finally a spare line drawing. Art explodes, sending all his rainbow scales flying, and he is suddenly, inexplicably, stripped to a pastel image.
When impetuous Max decides to paint deliberate Art, he impulsively covers him with sloppy splashes of vibrant color. Two lizards, one an unbridled enthusiast and the other a restrained snoot, stumble along a circuitous creative path together, making art through mishap and engaging all kinds of media along the way.
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