by Maggie C. Rudd ; illustrated by Elisa Chavarri ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 2021
A rhythmic reassurance of unconditional love worth reading time and again…and again.
A pledge: From birth to forever, a caregiver will be there for their child.
These three-line stanzas that alternately begin or end with the line “I’ll hold your hand” almost create a parenting vow, not unlike a marriage vow. “I’ll hold your hand” from the “night you arrive / when the whole world comes alive”; in good times, like vacations and snow days, and bad, “when goodbyes are a bummer” that create tantrums or “on your first night away / if you decide not to stay”; in sickness and in health. Each double-page spread features a different caregiver-and-child pair traveling together through the rites of passage, like learning to walk, camping out, the first day of school, and a broken heart. One spread even transposes the adult-child roles when it is the child who holds the hand of the snoring, bearded adult who conked out while reading to the child: “When you’re counting sheep, / and you’re falling asleep, / I’ll hold your hand.” Look carefully. The book in the illustration is this very book. “In the spring or the fall, / when you’re feeling small, / or for no reason at all, / I’ll hold your hand,” the book concludes, adding a third rhyme as a grace note. Although there is no reason to assume that all the families shown are headed by a single adult, all illustrations include only one caregiver and one child, all living in a racially diverse community. Illustrations also include a child in a wheelchair and a mother wearing a hijab. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A rhythmic reassurance of unconditional love worth reading time and again…and again. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31413-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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by Maggie C. Rudd ; illustrated by Elisa Chavarri
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by Maggie C. Rudd ; illustrated by Elisa Chavarri
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.
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
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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...
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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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
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