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THE LITTLE GREEN ENVELOPE

Name: THE LITTLE GREEN ENVELOPE
Author: Gillian Sze
ISBN: 9781773066813

by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Claudine Crangle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2023

A sweet and straightforward homage to old-fashioned letter writing.

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When a child’s friend moves away, an eager envelope gets the opportunity to embark on a journey.

Olive Zhi, a pale girl with dot eyes and black hair tied into two blunt pigtails, is not her cheery self when she visits Grandpa (also pale with dot eyes) one day. Her friend has moved, so Grandpa suggests sending a letter. Cut-paper illustrations in a natural pastel palette aptly highlight the real hero of this story: a green envelope who overhears their conversation from a desk drawer. This envelope, differentiated by two googly eyes on its flap side (allowing the flap’s lines to create wonderfully expressive faces), dreams of traveling to faraway places like other envelopes. After a moment of suspense, it is indeed chosen to accompany Olive’s letter to her friend. This sets off a montage of the letter’s travels, incorporating the clever use of paper products to create images of a mailbox, many hands of various shades, a mail truck, and a carrier’s bag. There are no facts about how the postal service works—the emphasis here is on how delighted the recipient is to see the envelope once it arrives. Future correspondence is sure to come. The book ends with a diagram for making your own envelope. Olive is cued as Chinese. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sweet and straightforward homage to old-fashioned letter writing. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023

ISBN: 9781773066813

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Groundwood

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
I DREW A HEART
by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Naoko Stoop

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU ARE MY FAVORITE COLOR
by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Niña Mata

- BOOK REVIEW
MY LOVE FOR YOU IS ALWAYS
by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Michelle Lee

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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GRUMPY MONKEY

by Suzanne Lang ; illustrated by Max Lang ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...

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It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?

When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)