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FRANK AND LUCKY GET SCHOOLED

As with Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith’s Math Curse (1995), this book should open readers’ eyes to the learning all around...

When an unlucky boy and a lost dog find each other, their friendship leads to a lot of learning.

First they learn about each other; then they go to school. Lucky the black Lab goes to his school 10 times, but Frank the redheaded, white boy has to go thousands. But even when they’re not at school, they’re learning: botany and entomology from the plants and ticks Lucky picks up in his explorations; chemistry from their experiments about what will take away skunk odor; astronomy from the time they spend outside because Lucky is still too smelly; math—infinity is the number of biscuits Lucky is willing to eat, and at night, what fraction of the bed belongs to Frank and what to Lucky? But the duo’s favorite subject is geography—exploring the world around them, and that leads to other lessons of all kinds. Perkins’ pen-and-ink–and-watercolor illustrations use vignettes and speech/thought bubbles to marvelous effect. And the humor is hysterically tongue-in-cheek: “If a dog is sitting at the Horizon Line, he will look like a Silhouette….Then you will have to go get him and bring him home.”

As with Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith’s Math Curse (1995), this book should open readers’ eyes to the learning all around them. Of course, if they have learning companions like Lucky, so much the better. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 14, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-237345-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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

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