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WHEN I FOUND GRANDMA

Name: WHEN I FOUND GRANDMA
Author: Saumiya Balasubramaniam
ISBN: 978-1-77306-018-7

by Saumiya Balasubramaniam ; illustrated by Qin Leng ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Sweet and honest.

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An assimilated child of the Indian diaspora finds herself culturally challenged when her grandmother visits her family in North America.

Maya misses her grandmother and wishes she would visit rather than sending her postcards from many miles away. A few weeks later, Maya has a special surprise waiting for her: Grandma has come to visit! But Maya’s excitement doesn’t last long. Maya prefers cupcakes to her grandmother’s homemade sweets; when her grandmother visits her school, she is embarrassed by Grandma’s sari and her loud voice; most of all, Maya does not like it when her Grandma calls her “Mayalakshmi.” The narrative comes to a head when Maya loses sight of her family during a trip to an amusement park, and she and her grandmother find each other in more ways than one. Balasubramaniam’s honest first-person text and Leng’s soft line-and-color illustrations—which deftly and sympathetically convey the intensity of Maya’s feelings—explore familial love and the intricacies of cross-cultural and intergenerational relationships between very young children and their grandparents. Maya and her family are Indian and celebrate Holi; they live in a vibrant, diverse urban setting. The use of English names (Grandma, Mother, Father) may strike children like Maya as odd, but it is inclusive of a broad range of children with South Asian heritage.

Sweet and honest. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-77306-018-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Groundwood

Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN I VISITED GRANDMA
by Saumiya Balasubramaniam ; illustrated by Kavita Ramchandran

- BOOK REVIEW
TWO DROPS OF BROWN IN A CLOUD OF WHITE
by Saumiya Balasubramaniam ; illustrated by Eva Campbell

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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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)