Whether used as beginning prayers or to teach an attitude of gratitude, this lovely title and its companion do their parts...
Thick pages, a padded cover, and simple text ensure that this board book will survive a toddler's daily mindfulness practice.
Parents wanting to help their children establish the practice of gratitude and mindfulness will find gentle examples in this and its companion volume, Tiny Blessings for Giving Thanks. Simple, direct sentences address an unspecified “You,” leaving readers free to fill in the blank (Mother Earth, Great Spirit, God, Shakti, Shiva, Kali, Consciousness, Creator, etc.) depending on each family’s belief system. Bedtime evokes nighttime icons—the twinkling stars, a shimmery moon, tender goodnight kisses, and peaceful rest are listed. Giving Thanks starts with “Thank you for this great, big world” before moving to less abstract images that children will easily recognize. Parker's rhyming text is reminiscent of scripture and meditation guides, and it flows smoothly, but with just five page turns it won't burden beginning practitioners. Walsh's art, a sweet mix of collage and greeting-card whimsy, invites a closer look. The smiling children portrayed in a satisfying mix of skin tones model wonderment, joy, and contentment, while the brown-skinned mother in this volume and the white father in Giving Thanks epitomize loving concern.
Whether used as beginning prayers or to teach an attitude of gratitude, this lovely title and its companion do their parts to start mindfulness in the cradle. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7624-5990-2
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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