A gentle tug at the heartstrings.
Sofia and May share a special friendship that weathers both distance and time.
The fence that separates the girls’ houses becomes the door to friendship. After spending spring and summer playing in a nearby field of sourgrass and making a game out of spitting sourgrass stems, the two resolve to be best friends forever. After May moves away, the children initially exchange letters, but May stops writing, and Sofia wonders if she’s been forgotten. When the sourgrass blooms the following spring, however, Sofia tastes one of the flowers and is reminded of the strength of their bond. Soon, she receives a note from May, and a potential new friend appears by the fence. The lovely, poetic text conveys the depths of childhood friendships and the pain of life’s inevitable changes. Readers will wonder, right along with Sofia, whether May will return her letters. Warm illustrations, rendered in chalk pastel and watercolor, are every bit as vibrant as a blossoming friendship or a summer day. One particularly stunning image spans two pages and shows Sofia observing a stem of sourgrass growing through a crack in the fence. The flower lights up the page, a smudge of yellow playing across Sofia’s nose, while warm oranges and pinks soften the scene. Lim and Maydani offer a realistic yet hopeful depiction of ever changing, meaningful childhood bonds. Sofia is Black, while May presents white.
A gentle tug at the heartstrings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781665931861
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
Gently models kindness and respect—positive behavior that can be applied daily.
A group of young “dinosauruses” go out into the world on their own.
A fuchsia little Hugasaurus and her Pappysaur (both of whom resemble Triceratops) have never been apart before, but Hugasaurus happily heads off with lunchbox in hand and “wonder in her heart” to make new friends. The story has a first-day-of-school feeling, but Hugasaurus doesn’t end up in a formal school environment; rather, she finds herself on a playground with other little prehistoric creatures, though no teacher or adult seems to be around. At first, the new friends laugh and play. But Hugasaurus’ pals begin to squabble, and play comes to a halt. As she wonders what to do, a fuzzy platypus playmate asks some wise questions (“What…would your Pappy say to do? / What makes YOU feel better?”), and Hugasaurus decides to give everyone a hug—though she remembers to ask permission first. Slowly, good humor is restored and play begins anew with promises to be slow to anger and, in general, to help create a kinder world. Short rhyming verses occasionally use near rhyme but also include fun pairs like ripples and double-triples. Featuring cozy illustrations of brightly colored creatures, the tale sends a strong message about appropriate and inappropriate ways to resolve conflict, the final pages restating the lesson plainly in a refrain that could become a classroom motto. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Gently models kindness and respect—positive behavior that can be applied daily. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-82869-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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