An engaging tale about offering kindness and receiving friendship.
A bunny faces her fears and makes a new friend in this picture book.
A rabbit named Love Truly and her friends are in the school cafeteria when the new kid arrives. He’s big, blue, and has a booming voice that makes Love Truly shiver. The bunny prays that the new kid, PeeWee, will make some friends—just not with her. But when PeeWee trips and spills all his food, Love Truly’s heart tells her she needs to do something. Full of bravery, she rounds up her friends and they help the new student, even inviting him to sit with them at their table. As it turns out, PeeWee was frightened, too: He was scared of not making any friends at his new school. Told in the second person, in the same tone as Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (1985), the enjoyable story makes Love Truly’s choices feel personal and relatable, all relayed in accessible language for emergent readers. Clues about Love Truly’s struggle are particularly well phrased: “But your heart will ache because you aren’t showing love.” Pattison’s text refers to prayer and begins with a Bible verse, but the important lessons of friendship and kindness are universal. Davis’ cartoon illustrations deliver simple animal characters packed with plenty of charisma. Though the author is better known for her science titles, like Diego, the Galápagos Giant Tortoise (2022), she ably displays her ability to depict children’s strong emotions.
An engaging tale about offering kindness and receiving friendship.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781629442051
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Tapestry Publications
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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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