A loving and lovely celebration of the many ties—sisterly, friendship, communal—that bind.
The creators of the bestselling The Proudest Blue (2019) return with a tale of siblings, friendship, and acts of kindness.
For picture day, Faizah wears a red dress that belonged first to Mama and then to her older sister, Asiya. Asiya does Faizah’s hair in puffs, Faizah pins Asiya’s hijab, and, with kind words from Mama, off they go to school, where Faizah finds she matches with her friend Sophie, who has light skin and red hair and is wearing a dress with red roses. Brown-skinned Ms. Ramirez asks the students to imagine the kind of world they want and to draw and label it. Faizah draws a kind world, and Sophie draws a superhero world. Then, at recess and throughout the day, they use their superpowers to make the world kinder, helping other kids and brightening their days. By picture time, everyone in class is smiling. But when it’s time for sibling photos, Faizah is upset to realize that, unlike the other sibling pairs, she and Asiya don’t match. Can her friends find a way to help? Helping others looks fun and rewarding in this sweet tale that empowers readers by showing them their actions can result in a world everyone would want to live in. This much-needed positive representation of a loving Black Muslim family is set within a diverse community, depicted with Aly’s characteristic expressive energy and charm. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A loving and lovely celebration of the many ties—sisterly, friendship, communal—that bind. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5570-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Being kind and helpful lights up the day from within in this inspiring and idyllic slice-of-life tale.
Actor, social media star, and entrepreneur Brown pens a joyful paean to positive thinking in her children’s debut.
Brown-skinned Tab rides a strawberry-themed bike, accompanied by a curly-haired black dog, Grady. Tab’s dazzling smile and wide eyes signal the upbeat theme echoed in the text, celebrating the sun’s warmth, which “fills everyone up with joy.” But Tab’s mood shifts, as it’s a “cloudy and gray” June day. Alert readers will spot the dog’s smiling countenance and note glimpses of sunny yellow butterflies and flowers. Mama’s reassurance that there’s “always a chance” for sunshine also underscores the optimism. Tab and Grady bike through suburban streets “to find the sun.” Along the way, the two stop to assist a neighbor building a birdhouse, loft a kite for friends Frankie and Fonte, and lend a hand to others, all while still having fun. Mama steers Tab toward an eventual understanding of the real source of joy: Though the sun didn’t appear, “I brightened everyone’s day!” The illustrations subtly underscore the message of this radiant story as touches of gold lighten the palette, which ends with sunny brilliance. Most characters read Black, though Tab’s community includes people who vary in skin tone, body type, and ability.
Being kind and helpful lights up the day from within in this inspiring and idyllic slice-of-life tale. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780063342262
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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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