by Helen H. Wu ; illustrated by Zihua Yang ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2025
A charming story of encouragement, illustrated with life and movement.
A young Chinese girl discovers the beauty of imperfection during a Lunar New Year celebration.
When Grandpa picks up a tangerine tree at the market, Ping’s excited (“It will bring prosperity and good luck”). She decides that the leafy new resident needs a “perfect pot,” so she gathers her clay and gets to work. Ping deems her first effort too “clumsy.” Meanwhile, Grandpa cleans up around her and gently urges her on. The evenly paced narrative is artfully spotted with onomatopoeias as Ping attempts various media with rigor: She uses papier-mâché and vials of colorful glitter and tries to wrap yarn around a bowl. But nothing is just right. Yang fills every page with bright hues and intricate details, creating vivid scenes. Alluring illustrations show Grandpa decorating the house for the festivities as he urges Ping to persevere. Through Grandpa’s dialogue, Wu provides pragmatic examples on how to take a mindful approach to challenges, and finally, after taking a deep breath, Ping realizes her artistic vision. Grandpa praises her, but “something is still missing.” Ping eventually finds beauty within the flaws of her prior projects and decides to include them in the final celebratory display, each holding plants of their own. Her embrace of all aspects of the creative process makes for a delightful holiday tale.
A charming story of encouragement, illustrated with life and movement. (information on Lunar New Year traditions, author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9798889830429
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beaming Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
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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...
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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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.
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)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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