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SEAMUS’S SHORT STORY

Name: SEAMUS’S SHORT STORY
Author: Heather Hartt-Sussman
ISBN: 978-1-55498-793-1

by Heather Hartt-Sussman ; illustrated by Milan Pavlović ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2017

To quote the closing text: “And that’s the long and short of it.” (Picture book. 4-7)

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A diminutive boy finds a gender-bending solution to reach greater heights.

Short Seamus is frustrated that “the world appears to be made for tall people.” He can’t reach many things, and attempts to make a running jump and to stand on a rickety chair and a wobbly stepladder are futile. He even tries sitting on his big brother’s shoulders “(but they are not quite high enough).” This last parenthetical statement calls into question the logic of the solution he ultimately discovers: wearing a pair of his mother’s “high high-heeled shoes.” Despite this narrative hole, Seamus’ delight at reaching everything from “the top button in the elevator” to “the chocolate milk in the fridge” is apparent. Notably, no one questions his decision to wear traditionally feminine footwear, though there is one illustration with two neighbors looking askance across the property line fence. It’s Seamus who ends up questioning the shoes when he realizes that there are some nice things about being short, but he ends up deciding that there are times when it’s good to be tall and others when it’s good to be small. The colored pencil–and-ink illustrations adopt a cartoon style and seem to depict all characters as white people, though outlines in blue indicate nonrealistic skin colors.

To quote the closing text: “And that’s the long and short of it.” (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-55498-793-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Groundwood

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
NONI IS NERVOUS
by Heather Hartt-Sussman ; illustrated by Geneviève Côté

- BOOK REVIEW
NANA'S SUMMER SURPRISE
by Heather Hartt-Sussman ; illustrated by Georgia Graham

- BOOK REVIEW
HERE COMES HORTENSE!
by Heather Hartt-Sussman & illustrated by Georgia Graham

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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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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)