A thoughtful, well-illustrated work about pursuing goals.
A girl hopes to dazzle the crowd at a talent show in Ho and Byrd’s debut picture book.
Mara dresses more colorfully than other residents of conformist Sametown, who all wear bland polo shirts. She’s planning to perform a dance routine at an upcoming talent show where everyone else is doing magic tricks. However, her teacher discourages her. Mara’s mother, however, knows exactly what to say to give her child courage. Right before her performance, it’s revealed that Mara uses a wheelchair; the stage isn’t accessible, and she must emotionally ground herself before asking for assistance. The book takes care to show that Mara’s difference from others in Sametown isn’t only her wheelchair use, but also her creativity and inventiveness. Co-author and dancer Ho discusses her own wheelchair use in an author’s note, which brings authenticity to the story. Rodriguez’s pleasing full-color illustrations are refreshingly diverse, featuring characters with varying skin tones; Mara and her mother are portrayed as Asian. The story flows nicely, but the talent show stakes are a bit unclear; although the audience and emcee are seemingly blown away, Mara doesn’t even place. Discussion questions will spark conversations about uniqueness and unpack biases about people who use wheelchairs.
A thoughtful, well-illustrated work about pursuing goals.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9997050-7-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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
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