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GINA KAMINSKI SAVES THE WOLF

Name: GINA KAMINSKI SAVES THE WOLF
Author: Craig Barr-Green
ISBN: 9781684647866

by Craig Barr-Green ; illustrated by Francis Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024

An exuberant, laugh-out-loud take on fairy tales that flawlessly incorporates social-emotional skills.

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“I am Gina Kaminski. I fix mistakes.”

Gina Kaminski, a plucky, precocious child with an eye for detail, is having a bad day at school, which the youngster maps on an emoji chart. Gina hears “Little Red Riding Hood” read aloud but doesn’t approve of the ending at all; three mistakes were made. Wouldn’t anyone eat the cake instead of carrying it all the way to Grandma’s? Why take a dangerous shortcut in the first place? And is there anything Gina can do to save the wolf? Unbeknownst to the teacher, Gina takes charge and enters the story, determined to find better answers and, in the process, turns a bad day around. Clever, sparkling text full of wit and humor perfectly captures Gina’s voice, while sketchy, humorous pictures with just the right amount of detail extend the story. Young readers and listeners will fall in love with clever, independent Gina, appreciate the tale’s suspense, learn how to disrupt a bad mood, and see classic stories with a new perspective. Upon revisiting the emoji chart, which is handily worked into the endpapers, Gina will likely choose a happier face this time! Gina and other human characters have skin the white of the page.

An exuberant, laugh-out-loud take on fairy tales that flawlessly incorporates social-emotional skills. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: March 19, 2024

ISBN: 9781684647866

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kane Miller

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)