Stella’s Brave Voice may empower other kids to find theirs, too.
A young girl must learn to advocate for herself in Bader’s picture book.
Stella and her fraternal twin sister, Paige, have lots in common. They also have complementary differences: Stella likes cake but not frosting, for example, while Paige likes frosting but not cake. But Stella gets aggravated when Paige speaks for her without giving her time to answer, or interrupts, or speaks over her. Stella wants to speak up, but she doesn’t know how. That evening, their mother gives Stella great advice, reminding her how Paige started to speak up for Stella when they were younger and Stella’s anxiety was more severe. Her advice empowers Stella to speak up for herself, but also to remember that Paige loves her and doesn’t want her to feel scared. Their mother helps Stella use her stuffed animals to model a conversation with Paige. The next day at school, Stella has a productive conversation with her sibling. Bader’s story presents anxious young readers with a great model for learning how to assert themselves in conversation. Soto’s full-color cartoon illustrations are cute but might have been improved with more realistic shading, although the well-drawn backgrounds ably contextualize the settings. The speaking characters are all depicted with pale skin; the story has several background characters of color, including the twins’ teacher.
Stella’s Brave Voice may empower other kids to find theirs, too.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9798985768138
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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