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MURAL ISLAND

Name: MURAL ISLAND
Author: Katie Yamasaki
ISBN: 9781324053927

by Katie Yamasaki ; illustrated by Katie Yamasaki ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 11, 2025

Exultant.

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A young artist’s joy expresses itself in drawings—everywhere.

Kengi, who uses they/them pronouns, is in trouble. They draw everywhere—on the food in the refrigerator, on toilet paper, on the bathroom mirror, and even on people. They draw rainbows and cars, fish, and fruit. Others are constantly cleaning up what they see as Kengi’s mess. Kengi’s fed-up principal demands that the child “stop drawing like this…or else.” Fortunately for Kengi, art teacher Ms. Beatriz points them toward Mural Island, a haven for artists. There, Kengi paints with abandon, making “their most breathtaking masterpiece ever,” a joyous scene of happy, engaged children surrounded by balloons, flying creatures, and rainbows aplenty. Alas, Kengi returns to Mural Island the next day, only to find their art has disappeared again—others have painted over their work. A friend wisely says, “None of it lasts too long so we just love it while it’s here.” The promise of artistic collaboration that day inspires Kengi to paint another bonanza of uplifting scenes. Yamasaki, herself a well-established muralist, relies on cheery colors and undulating patterns to depict the artistic passion pouring out of Kengi—a rainbow palette that covers not only furniture and walls, but also characters’ skin and hair and whole city blocks seen from a bird’s-eye view. Most characters present Black.

Exultant. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 11, 2025

ISBN: 9781324053927

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Norton Young Readers

Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
PLACE HAND HERE
by Katie Yamasaki ; illustrated by Katie Yamasaki

- BOOK REVIEW
SHAPES, LINES, AND LIGHT
by Katie Yamasaki ; illustrated by Katie Yamasaki

- BOOK REVIEW
DAD BAKES
by Katie Yamasaki ; illustrated by Katie Yamasaki

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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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GRUMPY MONKEY

by Suzanne Lang ; illustrated by Max Lang ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...

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It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?

When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)