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BLUE SKY MORNING

Name: BLUE SKY MORNING
Author: Kim Jihyun
ISBN: 9781782509080

by Kim Jihyun ; illustrated by Kim Jihyun ; translated by Polly Lawson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2025

The feeling of a lovely morning, captured perfectly.

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Come along with Eunny as she navigates her morning routine.

Delicate watercolor and colored pencil illustrations depict a view of an initially quiet Korean town, while clever second-person text directly addresses readers and the protagonist: “Wake up, Eunny! It’s a beautiful, blue sky morning.” With a gentleness that matches her soft yet precise artwork, Kim invites readers to participate in Eunny’s activities (“Can you hear the town waking up too?” “Have you noticed the flowers?”). Eunny eats a breakfast prepared by her grandmother, Mama drinks coffee, and then she and Eunny set out. “It’s bright when you step outside, and the air feels cool and fresh. Take a deep breath.” Kim’s portrayal of the now-busy streets makes for immersive reading; every illustration in this South Korean import is filled with detail, from the children’s expressions to the individual leaves on the trees. Mama and Eunny aren’t in a rush, and the unseen narrator urges the child to “stop for a moment, and look up.” A marvelous page turn transitions from an overhead image of Eunny with her head craned back to a stunning view of the blue sky seen from below. As Eunny and her mother enjoy their walk to Mama’s bus stop and Eunny meets her friend Sohee, readers get to experience the fun of saying goodbye and hello, observing the changing colors of the foliage, and anticipating a new school day.

The feeling of a lovely morning, captured perfectly. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: May 13, 2025

ISBN: 9781782509080

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Floris

Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE DEPTH OF THE LAKE AND THE HEIGHT OF THE SKY
by Kim Jihyun ; illustrated by Kim Jihyun

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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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)