by Katherine Applegate & illustrated by Jan Ormerod ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2007
Applegate and Ormerod join forces to contribute to the all-too-small picture-book selection recounting the frontier movement to the Pacific coast. Young Hallie is distraught at the thought of leaving her beloved grandmother and her farm, but her parents have decided to move to Oregon. Hallie has an overwhelming fear of thunderstorms and cannot imagine surviving the journey westward without her grandmother, who always manages to calm her fears. Hallie’s grandmother says just the right things to her granddaughter, suggesting she write down everything she experiences on the westward journey. Applegate is realistic about the hardships typically faced by those who made the journey and shows floods, storms and unfamiliar terrain and animals causing a variety of reactions. Once Hallie rescues a baby buffalo, she hears a frighteningly loud sound and watches a herd of buffalo go by. Grandmother had predicted such an event, making Hallie feel close to her, and a baby sister is born and named after her grandmother. The placement of text lacks inventiveness, but the pictures, colors and gentle tale combine to make a solid package. Teachers and parents will appreciate this high-quality combination of text and illustration. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-618-53597-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2007
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by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Patricia Castelao
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by Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko ; illustrated by Wallace West
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016
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
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Andrew Clements & illustrated by R.W. Alley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2005
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Mark Elliott
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