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
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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