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BIG BEAR AND LITTLE FISH

Name: BIG BEAR AND LITTLE FISH
Author: Sandra Nickel
ISBN: 978-1-72841-717-2

by Sandra Nickel ; illustrated by Il Sung Na ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022

A delightful tale of unexpected friendship.

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An initially disappointing carnival prize turns out to be more rewarding than it seems.

Bear has her heart set on winning the biggest teddy bear at the fair, but instead she wins a fish—a fish “so small it lived in a bowl.” Bear reluctantly takes home her prize, but her sadness keeps her from seeing Fish’s potential for companionship. Bear goes on a walk alone and returns to tell the fish it cannot stay—their first real conversation. Fish counters every one of Bear’s arguments, and finally Bear sets off on another walk—this time, holding the fishbowl. Fish is orange, with red spectacles, a stack of books, a bed, and a plant; Bear is brown (some readers may be confused when she refers to herself as gold, but Fish clears up the discrepancy later) and walks upright. Gently rounded, softly colored hills, clouds, and trees, depicted with a grayish blue tinge, lend an underwater feeling to Bear’s world, subtly linking it to Fish’s bowl. Bear and Fish are sometimes big on the page, sometimes small, reinforcing the importance of perspective in this lovely, gently humorous story of the friendship that grows between different creatures when they accept each other for who they are. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A delightful tale of unexpected friendship. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-72841-717-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Carolrhoda

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
BEAR'S BIG IDEA
by Sandra Nickel ; illustrated by Il Sung Na

- BOOK REVIEW
THE STUFF BETWEEN THE STARS
by Sandra Nickel ; illustrated by Aimée Sicuro

- BOOK REVIEW
NACHO'S NACHOS
by Sandra Nickel ; illustrated by Oliver Dominguez

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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)