This woodland duo’s lesson in communication is ultimately unpersuasive.
Two friends try to apologize.
Scribble and Swoop are best friends, spending their days supporting each other’s creative endeavors in the ever sunny Walnut Woods. Scribble is a fuzzy orange squirrel, and Swoop is a blue-and-white owl with eyelashes and a heart-shaped face, and one day they decide to move in together. In an idyllic three-page moving montage, they find the perfect place, with “room for two with a little left over,” and unpack their things, individually deciding that the porch would be the ideal place to pursue their respective craft—and hiding it from their housemate. Things go predictably south, as Scribble wakes up early to open “the world’s greatest theater” while Swoop shuffles her tools into her dream studio space. A “CLATTER-BANG-CRASH” of a fight ensues, creating plenty of lingering resentment. A very drawn-out and ultimately anticlimactic apology sequence follows, in which readers are taught (probably not for the first time) that sorry “only works if you mean it.” Ironically, Scribble, though repentant, never does give a genuine apology, leaving Swoop to fix his curtains, his special pencil, and his ego, and then go on to create the sets for his plays. Julian’s sweet watercolor illustrations bring the ultimately uninspired text to life, with a cheerful palette and some creative use of the gutter.
This woodland duo’s lesson in communication is ultimately unpersuasive. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-190-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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