A strong tale about lost shoes that’s sure to spark a bit of spring cleaning.
A young dancer searches for her misplaced ballet slippers in this picture-book sequel about messes and memories.
Molly Butter has been looking forward to her dance recital party for weeks, so she worries when she can’t find her new, red dance shoes. When Molly asks her mom about them, she responds: “Are you sure you put them in the shoe closet when you took them off?” To evade a lecture, Molly wanders from room to room with her dog, Oscar, never finding her shoes but discovering other objects she’s left lying about: a sparkly sock under the couch, a book on the kitchen floor, and empty juice glasses in the basement. Perko’s busy digital illustrations amplify the mess beyond the text, showing a dripping juice cup, a half-eaten pizza, and an open cookie tin. Although Molly finally locates her shoes and pledges to always put them away in the closet, young readers may wonder why she left so many other things lying around that still need to be cleaned up. Dee’s narrative mentions Molly picking up items from her previous adventures as she looks for her shoes, finding things she or her brother, Billy, have been looking for along the way. But the message isn’t heavy-handed, and Molly ends up with plenty of clutter in the images. Fans of Billy Makes Cookies (2021), the first series installment featuring the brown-skinned, black-haired family, will be happy to see Billy return.
A strong tale about lost shoes that’s sure to spark a bit of spring cleaning.Pub Date: May 9, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985583410
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Boomi LLC
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022
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
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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