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FROG BOOTS

Name: FROG BOOTS
Author: Jill Esbaum
ISBN: 978-1-4549-3297-0

by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Joshua Heinsz ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020

Frog boots are undeniably cool; sadly, this book is not.

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A young boy and his boots struggle against gender stereotypes.

Dylan is starting at a new school and wants “one cool thing.” He falls for a pair of purple boots dotted with glow-in-the-dark poison dart frogs despite his mom’s mild disapproval, loving how they make him feel “cool and smart.” On his first day, though, one kid announces that “that boy’s wearing girl boots”; peers agree with that claim, and the teacher strides ahead without addressing it. School is off to a rough start until Dylan decides that he loves poison dart frogs no matter what the background color is, and after a week he marches back into school, boots on his feet, because “girls don’t own purple.” Flat watercolor illustrations show brown-skinned Dylan and his multiracial classmates clomp-tromping around mostly white backgrounds, illustrating the text but failing to add any depth or nuance to the equally flat scenario. The writing careens from awkwardly juvenile to confusingly clunky, with sentences that are sometimes choppy and sometimes overlong. The narrative is further marred by uneven pacing and an uninteresting structure. Books featuring cis boys transgressing gender norms are currently a dime a dozen, and this one fails to add anything compelling to the canon.

Frog boots are undeniably cool; sadly, this book is not. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 3, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-4549-3297-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sterling

Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
PARROTFISH HAS A SUPERPOWER
by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Bob Shea

- BOOK REVIEW
BIRD GIRL
by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

- BOOK REVIEW
STINKBIRD HAS A SUPERPOWER
by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Bob Shea

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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)