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THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN

Name: THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN
Author: Mk Smith Despres
ISBN: 9780823456413

by Mk Smith Despres ; illustrated by Julie Benbassat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2024

Imaginative musings on the world, ideal for young wonderers.

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Two friends ride out the ups and downs of life.

It’s true that we can have too much of a good thing: The sun shines “so the whole city can skip and jump and swing and smile in it,” but it also burns so hot that “everyone steams up or melts down.” Two pals, one with brown hair and tan skin, the other pale with dark hair, navigate the roller coaster that is life. When the hum of the day gets too loud for one child, the other is there, and the two sit together in peaceful quiet. When one youngster speeds down a hill and ends up taking a tumble, the other child is there to lend support. The text is lyrical, like stanzas of poetry, and though readers might want the words to rhyme, they don’t have a structured pattern. The illustrations bring the contemplative words to life with often dazzling results, such as a scene of children riding sunbeams like swings. The artwork has a soft, brushed quality that suits the various natural, outdoorsy settings. The final pages show the children returning home to the loving arms of their caregivers. The story lends itself to interpretation and meaningful conversation about the cyclical nature of life and the realization that with support and resilience, we can meet almost any obstacle.

Imaginative musings on the world, ideal for young wonderers. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024

ISBN: 9780823456413

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

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A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)