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PRINCESS HAIR

Name: PRINCESS HAIR
Author: Sharee Miller
ISBN: 978-0-316-56261-4

by Sharee Miller ; illustrated by Sharee Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2017

A sweet and joyful affirmation of the truth that “NAPPY princesses are HAPPY princesses.” (Picture book. 4-7)

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After decades of white princesses’ domination of American fairy tales, Miller expands the vision of what princess hair can look like to black girls.

Spread by double-page spread, the book highlights a multitude of diverse hairstyles while young girls play dress-up, all the while wearing their princess crowns. From twist outs to blowouts, dreadlocks to curls, Bantu knots to Afros, this is an all-out celebration of black hair. Deconstructing stereotypes, Miller takes the narrative beyond hair, portraying girls in their pretend play as young artists, thinkers, bakers, and even rock stars sporting a wide array of frohawks. The girls depicted in her ink-and-watercolor illustrations range in skin tone from dark brown to very light, and their hair ranges likewise from black to light brown and red. The text is simple, effectively a catalog of hairstyles, each one printed in capitalized and colored display type for emphasis. Some, though not all, lines play with internal rhyme: “Princesses with HEAD WRAPS take long naps. / Princesses with CURLS wear pearls. / And princesses with TEENY-WEENY AFROS wear teeny-weeny bows.”

A sweet and joyful affirmation of the truth that “NAPPY princesses are HAPPY princesses.” (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-316-56261-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
CURLFRIENDS
by Sharee Miller ; illustrated by Sharee Miller

- BOOK REVIEW
SAM'S SUPER SEATS
by Keah Brown ; illustrated by Sharee Miller

- BOOK REVIEW
MICHELLE'S GARDEN
by Sharee Miller ; illustrated by Sharee Miller

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK AND RACER RED

From the Little Blue Truck series

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2025

A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.

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In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.

Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”

A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 25, 2025

ISBN: 9780063387843

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S VALENTINE
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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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)