Young readers will enjoy this earnest story’s constructive lesson.
A young girl and her classmates learn how to celebrate diversity in Tabron’s illustrated children’s book, based on events from her own life.
La June has lots of friends in her Detroit neighborhood, but her closest friend is Jenefer. They enjoy imaginary adventures in Jenefer’s treehouse and play softball in the park. They’re in the same class at school, and La June looks forward to eating lunch with her best friend each day. But one day, Jenefer moves away, and when La June tries to make new friends, she’s suddenly aware of the strict social dynamics of her class. Jenefer was white and La June is Black; in the lunchroom, “She and Jenefer always sat at the middle table, but no one is sitting there now. As she looks around the room, she notices everyone is sitting with people who look like them.” Things become further complicated when Eva and her family move into Jenefer’s old house; Eva has different interests than Jenefer did, and La June is confused by the traditional Mexican food that Eva’s family eats. However, with the help of La June’s mother and her teacher, Mr. Stokes, she and her classmates begin having discussions about their differences and learn about what it takes to unite as a community. Tabron’s book will most appeal to children in the upper elementary age group, due to the large amount of text per page and the overall length of the story. Overall, the narrative delivers an effective message and has a pleasingly natural flow with engaging characters. Tabron, the chief executive officer of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, helpfully reveals in the back matter that her current work with children and families relates to the healing that she found in her experiences at school in Detroit, which inspired this book. Grooms’ full-color cartoon illustrations feature classrooms with diverse students, who are portrayed with a range of skin tones.
Young readers will enjoy this earnest story’s constructive lesson.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781633311039
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Disruption Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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