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THE BRAND-NEW, NEVER-USED, PERFECT CRAYONS

Name: THE BRAND-NEW, NEVER-USED, PERFECT CRAYONS
Author: Leanne Hatch
ISBN: 9780823452309

by Leanne Hatch ; illustrated by Leanne Hatch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 22, 2023

Rife with valuable lessons about the creative process.

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When Violet spots a box of 84 crayons at the store, her imagination runs wild with artistic possibilities.

At home, the child opens up the box of brand-new, never-used crayons—all the same length, perfectly pointed, with smooth, uniform wrappers. But Violet is torn—her new crayons are too perfect to use (what if they get ruined?), while her old broken crayons aren’t capable of creating anything truly special…though her sister, Marigold, is happy to use them. Even their mother’s comment about the beauty of imperfections fails to convince Violet. When Marigold sneaks off and uses Violet’s new crayons to draw a picture for her, Violet is angry…first at Marigold, then at the crayons. “She was tired of worrying about them.” The sisters soon make up, and together they wear “down the perfectly pointed tips of eighty-four brand-new, never-used, perfect crayons.” As a nice touch, the text and illustrations remind readers that both girls have crayons named after them. Digitally created illustrations, some that look like child-created crayon art and others more realistic, work with the brief text to convey a simple but heartwarming tale. Hatch reminds readers that a willingness to take chances and make mistakes is crucial for any young artist. Characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Rife with valuable lessons about the creative process. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023

ISBN: 9780823452309

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House

Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
MY THOUGHTS HAVE WINGS
by Maggie Smith ; illustrated by Leanne Hatch

- BOOK REVIEW
UNRAVELED
by Leanne Hatch ; illustrated by Leanne Hatch

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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)