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BOOK

Name: BOOK
Author: David Miles
ISBN: 978-1-939629-65-4

by David Miles ; illustrated by Natalie Hoopes ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2015

One of the prettiest paeans to the codex in recent memory.

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This book quietly praises reading as a path to imaginative adventures while also taking several gentle swipes at high-tech gadgetry.

“And when your time comes to a close and the other world begins to call, don’t worry.” No, this close-to-the-final-page sentence does not refer to death but to leaving one’s book life for what some call “real life.” The beginning of the book makes it clear that a book is “quiet” and “ordinary”—“No buttons. No bonus levels”—until “you learn to look closer….” Thoughtful, poetic phrases are well-matched by mixed-media artwork that includes scraps of typed words in French and English, some of which are authors’ names. A black-haired Caucasian child in a red-and-white–striped shirt moves through a nonthreatening, fantastical world where “imagination scrapes the skies of opportunity, / the forests of what-could-be stretch beyond the horizon, // and the friends of fact and fiction make believe all night long under the milky stars of possibility.” Pastel skies lead to firefly-bedecked nights, adding a bedtime story’s allure. If this book is published as an e-book or app, some of its appeal will give way to irony. Its humor lies in such digs as, “It will never be sick, because viruses can’t catch it. // It will never go dark, because it doesn’t need batteries.”

One of the prettiest paeans to the codex in recent memory. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: July 14, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-939629-65-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Familius

Review Posted Online: March 10, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
I LOVE YOU, LITTLE TRUCK
by David Miles & Stephanie Miles ; illustrated by Natasha Molins

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SIDE-BY-SIDE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
by David Miles

- BOOK REVIEW
ATOM
by David Miles ; illustrated by David Miles

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CHICKA CHICKA HO HO HO

From the Chicka Chicka Book series

by William Boniface ; illustrated by Julien Chung ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.

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A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.

The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9781665954761

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)