Well-intentioned but muddled in message.
It starts with a few feathers, but by summer’s end Julianna has full body plumage.
Her parents support her, love her, and tell her she’s beautiful and unique. They even contact other parents, telling them of Julianna’s “rare and beautiful condition” and asking them to discuss it with their children. But there are stares, endless questions, avoidance, and outright bullying. Even children who had been her friends isolate her. She feels better when she flies, but soon she realizes that she is still alone. When she speaks up and defends herself, she discovers some kindred spirits, and they form a special flock of friends. Daphne has lizard scales, Geo has a fox’s tail, and others have their own animallike attributes. The anti-bullying, self-acceptance message is somewhat obscured by the new flock’s own cliquelike separation and the text’s failure to follow up with the bullies. Julianna tells her own tale in simple, accessible language that will warm readers to her plight, but the plot is disjointed, with fantasy elements that feel contrived and out of sync. Suspension of disbelief is definitely required. Metallinou’s brightly hued illustrations lovingly convey Julianna’s emotions, with touches of humor and compassion. Julianna and her parents present White. Both bullies and members of the new flock are diverse. Friends are White, Black, Asian—and furry, scaled, tailed, rabbit-toothed, and more.
Well-intentioned but muddled in message. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2329-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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