A bright and playful read-together story.
In Meyers’ debut picture book, a device-obsessed child is presented with an array of healthier options for spending his time.
“For Jay, each day was quite precise, / It started off with his device.” So begins the story of fair-skinned, brown-haired Jay, who spends hours and hours glued to his tablet. Too much screen time makes Jay tired and mean. His mother tries to interest him in more constructive activities, periodically involving readers in this discussion: “Please tell him what / you think… and quick! / What option for Jay / would YOU pick?” Eventually, Jay goes outside and plays with his neighbors (one Black, one white)…and has a great time. Meyers tackles an issue of relevance to many children and parents. The rhyming text fits a consistent-enough meter and should serve to make a game out of an otherwise serious piece of parental negotiation. Tivey’s illustrations are straightforward and have an element of sameness about them (Jay, for example, hardly changes from picture to picture). Compensating for this lack of dynamism, the images feature bright, vivid colors with ample variation in the background details—Jay’s baby sister is always trying some new activity, and all the suggestions Jay’s mom puts forward are portrayed in miniature, framed-picture illustrations. It’s a cheery book that children should engage with when read to.
A bright and playful read-together story.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9798988117421
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Oak Park Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 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
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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