An engaging, accessible narrative of immigration, resilience, and connections between generations.
A Korean American girl learns the history of the gold dress she plans to wear in a talent show in this picture book.
Hannah is anxious about her Korean dance performance for her school talent show. A huge worry is her ostentatious peach-and-gold dress: “It was too different. Too Korean.” Noticing her discomfort, her mother tells her the story of her great-grandmother’s hanbok fabric business in Korea. The woman had to flee North Korea during the war. She needed to bring her fabrics with her but could not carry many bags; instead, she wrapped hanbok silks around her body under her coat, including a peach-and-gold one. Before moving to America, she gave the new store owner in Seoul instructions never to sell the peach-and-gold hanbok unless a girl named Geum Chun requested it. When Hannah was born, her great-grandmother gave her a Korean name—Geum Chun—so that she could eventually claim the dress. Armed with this knowledge, Hannah dazzles at the talent show. While questions remain—why did Hannah never learn this secret before?—the emotional arc of Paik’s story is neat and the message affirming for children seeking connections with immigrant histories that feel remote. Lin Park’s acrylic paintings offer detailed, realistic portraits of Hannah, her mother, and the bright silk fabric and sketchier pictures of the historical narrative. The titular dress is rendered in stunning gold paint.
An engaging, accessible narrative of immigration, resilience, and connections between generations.Pub Date: May 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-954109-11-7
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Imagilore Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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