A well-intentioned homily in which tolerance and kindness overcome bullying, but the tone is cloying and the message feels...
A little girl counts how many times the word “and” appears in her books and demonstrates to the adults in her life how important that little word can be.
She narrates supposedly old tales about shapes. A circle is insulted by a line until the cheerful uppercase AND, referred to as female, comes along “so simple and sure” and announces ‘Yes, we can!” and joins their hands (not pictured in the illustrations), and voilà, they form a balloon. A rectangle insults a triangle, bringing the chirpy AND again, joining them to make a seesaw. A rectangle and a square are joined to make a house, an oval and a line form musical notes, and a cylinder and an octagon form a table for people to gather in community. The rhyming tale is disjointed, with a particularly preachy conclusion, and the subtitle is quite misleading. Rothenberg’s very bright cartoons enhance the tale, with the depiction of AND varied and charming, especially when seen from a distance. But the illustrations have their own deficiencies. The rectangle that meets the triangle is extremely elongated and appears to be nearly identical to the rather wide line that joins with the oval. There is a link to download a song based on the tale. The child who begins it all appears white; some of the adults in her life are people of color.
A well-intentioned homily in which tolerance and kindness overcome bullying, but the tone is cloying and the message feels forced. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947888-05-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flyaway Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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