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MY BRIGHT FRIEND

Name: MY BRIGHT FRIEND
Author: Simon Boulerice
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2189-7

by Simon Boulerice ; illustrated by Marilyn Faucher ; translated by Sophie B. Watson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 2019

Readers hoping for strong storytelling won’t find it here.

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A child coping with divorce finds comfort in an unexpected place.

The opening lines, translated from French, explain in a very unchildlike tone that “Ludo’s parents didn’t love each other anymore. There was nothing to be done—love is like a flame, and their love had been extinguished.” After this early mention of Ludo’s mother, she never appears again, and instead the story takes place when Ludo stays with his city-dwelling father. Ludo doesn’t like being there and spends his days indoors, but when he looks outside he sees a traffic light and is captivated. His father playfully tells him a “very patient little man” lives inside of it and changes the lights. Ludo believes him and worries about the man, so he decides to leave him toast with jam each night. He’s delighted when he finds only crumbs on the plate the next day, and Ludo’s father is, in turn, delighted by his son’s spirited imagination. A series of curious events suggests that Ludo isn’t imagining this exchange at all and that the little man really does live in the traffic light. Unfortunately, the wordy story’s logic has many holes, and they aren’t filled by the illustrations, resulting in a less-than-satisfying picture book. In Faucher’s bright, naïve illustrations, the cast is an all-white one.

Readers hoping for strong storytelling won’t find it here. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4598-2189-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
FLORENCE & LEON
by Simon Boulerice ; illustrated by Delphie Coté-Lacroix ; translated by Sophie B. Watson

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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GRUMPY MONKEY

by Suzanne Lang ; illustrated by Max Lang ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...

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It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?

When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)