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UNDER MY TREE

An interactive, modern-day The Giving Tree without the creepy self-sacrifice.

A city girl falls in love with a tree and marvels at its wonders.

Susanne looks forward to vacations at her grandparents’ house in the country. On a walk in the forest with her grandmother, Susanne discovers her “big, beautiful tree,” like something out of a fairy tale. Every day, she visits her tree and notices something miraculous and new: the view from the topmost branches, the sound of the wind through the leaves, a family of owls, insects that march along the truck. As she delights in each discovery, leaf-shaped callout boxes in page corners encourage readers to discuss, explore, and interact. (Some boxes present facts, but no sources are cited.) Even when she returns to the city, Susanne thinks often of her beloved tree. The stylized illustrations use a variety of perspectives—close up, bird’s eye, profile—to create a page-turning dynamic as action drives readers from left to right. Solid colors and patterns of the modern world contrast with translucent, tissue-paper–like leaves, placing the emphasis firmly on the natural world. Like the illustrations, Susanne’s detailed first-person narration is tree-centered, leaving little room for character development. Originally published in France, the lyrical text is not always served well by the translation, most notable in the awkward toggling between past and present tenses. All characters appear white.

An interactive, modern-day The Giving Tree without the creepy self-sacrifice. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-7331212-3-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Blue Dot Kids Press

Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

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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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GRUMPY MONKEY

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...

It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?

When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 15, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-553-53786-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018

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