Readers definitely won’t sour on this sweet friendship tale.
Talk about opposites not attracting.
Sweet and Sour are pickles who don’t get along. They live on opposite sides of a fence, and their habits and dispositions are wildly different. Long and skinny Sour is slow; short and round Sweet is speedy. Sour is angry; Sweet is happy. Sour prefers the quiet; Sweet likes things loud. As for actual taste, Sour derives his flavor from vinegar and garlic; Sweet’s signature piquancy comes from having been prepared with “cinnamon and sugar and a bop of mustard seed.” Can these contrarians reconcile? Things improve after Sour throws a pool party and invites every pickle—except Sweet. Sour feels guilty when he peers over the fence and spies an angry-looking Sweet in a tiny wading pool. For his part, Sweet considers that maybe the pair aren’t so different and writes Sour a note asking to meet. They become friends, share pickle puns, and build a community where all pickles are welcome. Though many children may dislike pickles (or perhaps haven’t yet tasted them), they’ll feel reassured by this humorous story about opposites discovering commonalities and becoming friends. Young kids may not get the puns, but grown-ups can help with that. Emergent readers should find the simple text easy to navigate. The colorful illustrations are lively; the unconventional protagonists are engaging, their body language and exaggerated expressions speaking volumes.
Readers definitely won’t sour on this sweet friendship tale. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780374391447
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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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