bookshelf

THE BRILLIANT MS. BANGLE

Name: THE BRILLIANT MS. BANGLE
Author: Cara Devins
ISBN: 9781250247704

by Cara Devins ; illustrated by K-Fai Steele ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2023

A charming portrayal of a whimsical trickster librarian who knows how to get kids reading.

bookshelf

Change can be challenging but good.

Summer’s over, and the Belford Elementary students are thrilled to return to school. But when they learn that Ms. Stack, their librarian, has moved away, they hatch a plan to refuse to read with the new librarian, Ms. Bangle, until Ms. Stack returns. A brown-skinned, large, vivacious woman, Ms. Bangle wears a huge puffball on the top of her head and clothing with lots of colors and patterns. Instead of resisting the students’ rejection of her, she thanks them for giving her the day off and puts them to work on (boring) library chores, including taking empty boxes to the basement, where they’re all afraid to go. Steele’s thick-lined illustrations, featuring racially diverse characters with large, bulging eyes, capture the kids’ excitement about being back in school and their solidarity in their plan to get Ms. Stack to come back. The illustrations also convey Ms. Bangle’s liveliness: She enters the library with a stack of notebooks on her shoulder and moves so fast that colored papers fly out behind her. The colorful posters on the walls, stuffed animals atop the shelves, and the sewing machine on which Ms. Bangle hems her pants while the kids suffer through chores hint at the delights the students are missing. But this Black librarian is both fun-loving and clever, which leads to a satisfying ending. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A charming portrayal of a whimsical trickster librarian who knows how to get kids reading. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 20, 2023

ISBN: 9781250247704

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

bookshelf

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

bookshelf

IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

bookshelf

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)