A solid and accessible children’s introduction to SAD undermined by some uninspired illustrations.
A child describes being affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder in this illustrated introduction to the subject for young readers.
Granger’s book introduces brown-haired, pale-skinned Sam, who needs the sun to form happy feelings. Where Sam lives, shorter days in the winter mean longer hours of darkness. Sam feels like his battery is drained; the youngster just doesn’t want to do anything; he has no energy during those months. “It is hard to get up without the sun waking me,” Sam explains. “It is like being there but not being there.” The author ably captures what seasonal depression feels like through these kid-friendly terms, keeping the sentences short to make comprehension smoother for emergent readers. (This stays true even when Sam introduces science terms like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin.) In addition to outlining the chemical reasons for Seasonal Affective Disorder, Sam explains why the Earth has seasons and notes that children who live in the other hemisphere get SAD during Sam’s own happiest months. The child also describes coping strategies, including gratitude journaling, talking about positive things, and finding purpose in helping others. While Granger breaks everything down very approachably, the density of text on most pages may stymie the elementary school readers to whom the book seems addressed. The flat, digital cartoon illustrations, which feature an ethnically diverse cast, are hit-and-miss; the depiction of the more depressed Sam in a grayish hue is quite effective, but other elements initially seem not to go with the text at all, such as an image of two previously unintroduced older children eating junk food (a closer read links the image to a discussion of SAD’s effects on eating habits). However, the words come through well, and children who experience SAD will find comfort knowing they are not alone.
A solid and accessible children’s introduction to SAD undermined by some uninspired illustrations.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9798886858884
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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