An appealing, relaxing, and peaceful journey guaranteed to bring a restful night’s sleep.
A sweet tale to help adults gently ferry children toward peaceful slumber by using mindfulness techniques.
As sleepy youngsters glide through the natural world, they’re invited to say good night to drowsy elephants, giraffes, turtles, and other creatures; occasionally, the animals are depicted nodding off with companions or progeny. Kids are encouraged to employ various relaxation methods and take deep in-out breaths. By performing these activities, they’ll hopefully become one with their surroundings and achieve a state of mindful peace. Drage urges readers to “let the day go,” “think positive thoughts,” “let the relaxing feeling flow through your body,” and “relax in your bed.” The final page asks youngsters to “gently close your eyes” and fall asleep with a majestic smiling whale and its child. This lovely book is expressed in soothing prose that sets an appropriately tranquil bedtime mood; the sights of the delightful sleepy animals throughout are very comforting. The gorgeous hues of the digitally colored pencil and watercolor illustrations burst from the pages. Additionally, little ones will learn a thing or two about the animals’ habitats and preferred sleeping habits.
An appealing, relaxing, and peaceful journey guaranteed to bring a restful night’s sleep. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781536234978
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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
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