A wholesome story about community whose message is more inspiring than its prose.
The sixth installment of Delauney’s Owning the Dashpicture book series follows two young brothers who take on household responsibilities.
When Mom falls off her bike and breaks her leg, brothers Luke and Iver make a list of chores they can do while she’s recovering: cleaning, cooking, looking after the family dog. They also aim to help pay some bills by selling brownies. As the days go by, all this work takes its toll on the brothers. They grow fatigued and fall behind at school. One day, they wake to find all the neighborhood kids (portrayed as ethnically diverse, with one girl in a wheelchair) have come to help them complete their to-do list. So successful are these joint efforts, the kids make a pact always to be there for one another. Delauney writes with heart and enthusiasm, but with no clear appreciation of meter, leading to a narrative that contorts itself in search of end rhymes. For example: “As Iver finished reading, they heard the doorbell ring. / Luke rushed to open the front door and jumped back smiling. / ‘Who is it?’ Iver demanded. ‘Who is at the door?’ / Luke gazed back at his brother. ‘Honestly, I’m not sure.’” Textual flow notwithstanding, young readers will likely respond well to the brothers’ good intentions and upbeat approach to family obligations, their bright outlook reflected in Civati’s open, pastel digital illustrations. Plot and picture combine nicely together to convey a sense of community.
A wholesome story about community whose message is more inspiring than its prose.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798891380837
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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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