MINDI AND THE GOOSE NO ONE ELSE COULD SEE

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MINDI AND THE GOOSE NO ONE ELSE COULD SEE

Name: MINDI AND THE GOOSE NO ONE ELSE COULD SEE
Author: Sam McBratney
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1281-5

by Sam McBratney ; illustrated by Linda Ólafsdóttir ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 9, 2021

Low-key and reassuring.

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A loving father and a wise neighbor find a way for Mindi’s invisible goose to depart.

Mindi’s goose, seen as a large and looming shadow on her bedroom wall, “came into her room as quietly as a thought…and…stayed there for as long as it wanted to.” Children will understand that Mindi can’t get rid of the goose on her own. Mindi’s father hikes over the hills to visit Austen, a “wise old man” who helps others with “sensible advice.” Austen asks that Mindi journey with her father to visit. Austen allows her to feed a young goat some apricots. “If she likes you she will give you back the stone.” The hidden stones of the apricots and, later, plums returned by the little goat to Mindi’s hand seem poetic and meaningful. The little girl gives the heretofore nameless kid a pragmatic name: Black-and-Whitey. When, a week later, Austen arrives at Mindi’s house, little goat in tow, and tells Mindi that the goat is hers in exchange for “the big goose no one else can see,” Mindi’s mother’s expression is amusing. McBratney’s posthumously published tale is filled with a gentle kindness, and the illustrations pick up on that, both treating the child’s fear with respect. Ólafsdóttir’s country scenes are tidy and filled with sunlight, Austen’s many animals look contented, and a young goat bounces across the endpapers. All the characters are White. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.6-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 29.1% of actual size.)

Low-key and reassuring. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 9, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-5362-1281-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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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)