Look elsewhere to learn about sloth behavior, punctuality, and how to be a good friend to someone who’s different from you.
Think your school mornings are hectic?
Slumby and his sloth family take things very slowly, which is fine until he starts school. A double-page spread with small scenes marked by an analog clock showing different times depicts Slumby’s morning rush. Those who can tell time will be astounded at just how long his routine takes him; even beginning at 3:45 a.m., he’s still a half-day late to school, just in time for recess. But Slumby does everything so slowly that he can’t jump rope, participate in the turtle race, or play armadillo ball (yep, that’s what it sounds like). Sad, he spends his recesses observing the butterflies that constantly surround him (á la Pigpen’s dirt in “Peanuts”) until the day the armadillo lands in the river with a hungry crocodile. It’s Slumby to the rescue! Though the book doesn’t provide this fact, sloths can swim up to three times as fast as they can walk on land. Whether that’s fast enough to effect a rescue from a crocodile is debatable, but regardless, Slumby’s classmates are now willing to change their activities so the hero sloth can be included. While the title and cover may bring to mind meditation, this is not a mindfulness book but one about a unique newcomer who’s accepted only once he proves his worth. Angaramo’s adorable cartoon animals wear clothing and have pleasingly mobile expressions. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31% of actual size.)
Look elsewhere to learn about sloth behavior, punctuality, and how to be a good friend to someone who’s different from you. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4246-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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