Useful for helping kids with serious or chronic health conditions build the confidence they need to speak up for themselves.
The teenage author—daughter of CNN’s Jake Tapper—draws from personal experience for the story of a young girl attempting to convince the adults in her life to listen to her health concerns.
Alice wakes up one night with severe stomach pain. Something is wrong, but the doctor dismisses her illness as flu, and her worried parents follow his advice. Later, the adults fail to listen as a sick, anxious Alice tries to tell them her pain is getting worse. A pack of small, brightly colored creatures, each representing a number on the hospital’s 1-10 pain scale, stay by Alice’s side and encourage her to assert herself. Ultimately, Alice speaks up and asks for an X-ray. Following an emergency appendectomy, Alice returns home buoyed by the knowledge that she’s strong enough to advocate for what she needs. Depictions of the sights and sounds of hospitals may make the experience feel less intimidating for readers. Alice expresses her fears in first person, which will help children navigating their own emotions. The book presents a difficult reality with a gentle hand: Even the most well-meaning of authority figures don’t always know what’s best, and systems don’t always work as they should. But children have the power to raise their voices. In Liem’s soft illustrations, Alice and her family present white; other characters are diverse.
Useful for helping kids with serious or chronic health conditions build the confidence they need to speak up for themselves. (health checklist for appendicitis and sepsis) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593752142
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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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