bookshelf

WHY WE NEED GRANDSONS

Name: WHY WE NEED GRANDSONS
Author: Gregory E. Lang
ISBN: 9781728278254

From the Why We Need series

by Gregory E. Lang ; illustrated by Lisa Alderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

Older adults with new grandsons may eat this up, but their grandkids aren’t likely to request rereads.

bookshelf

The Why We Need series expands to include grandsons.

Cutesy animal grandparents, never identified by gender, appear with their grandsons throughout, expounding on the ways their grandsons improve their lives and how they’re looking forward to the future with them. The animals’ species and activities generally aren’t connected to the rhyming text. For example, “That’s the thing about grandkids: They carry things on. / They link past and future, like day follows dawn. / The years that will come, and the years that are gone. / They are all a part of your story.” In the accompanying illustration, a grandparent humpback whale (none of the species are identified in the text) swims, the grandson tucked under the older whale’s pectoral fin. Like the recent Why We Need Granddaughters (2024), this entry has many of the same flaws of the series, namely the disconnect between the animal stand-ins for children and the text, the banal statements, and the vocabulary and concepts likely to go over young readers’ heads. This one also seems oddly out of order as well; the text talks about the child growing and learning before moving back to talk about the day they were born and their first steps.

Older adults with new grandsons may eat this up, but their grandkids aren’t likely to request rereads. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 5, 2024

ISBN: 9781728278254

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
WHY WE NEED GRANDDAUGHTERS
by Gregory E. Lang ; illustrated by Lisa Alderson

- BOOK REVIEW
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS LOVE
by Gregory E. Lang ; adapted by Craig Manning ; illustrated by Lisa Alderson

bookshelf

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...

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

bookshelf

A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)