A loving and lyrical tale about belonging.
When Rumi moves to a brand-new coast, friendship feels hard to find.
Although he is assigned the best seat in the room—right next to the class pets—brown-skinned Rumi still feels unwelcome and out of place in his new school. At recess, instead of playing with his diverse classmates, he sits beneath a willow tree in the schoolyard, dreaming of the cypress trees he loved back home in San Francisco. Things get worse when classmates Asher and Ella (both light-skinned) tease Rumi, making fun of the shoes he’d decorated with his friends in California. The bullying escalates when Asher throws a crumpled ball of paper at Rumi and later injures Rumi with a stone. Rumi’s classmate Han, who is Asian-presenting, comes to his defense, and the rest of the class soon follows, all eager to contribute to the drawing Rumi has been working on in the dirt beneath the tree. When Asher wanders back inside, alone, Rumi has a decision to make—does he want to perpetuate the bullying or end the cycle of exclusion? Based on an experience that happened to the author’s son, this poignant story captures our capacity for cruelty but also for forgiveness and acceptance. Precise language and well-chosen scenes create a cast of believable characters in only a few words, while the vibrant illustrations artfully use color and light to heighten the mood of each scene. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A loving and lyrical tale about belonging. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781534462960
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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