A heartfelt reminder that patience and openness are crucial when families welcome new members.
Being a new stepmom has its awkward moments, but it’s also a deeply rewarding experience.
A woman begins a new relationship and works to establish a bond with her partner’s young child. Although the child’s primary parent is introduced in a crayon drawing early on and appears throughout, the focus is on the stepmother and child’s developing relationship. The primary parent’s presence is more noticeable once the stepmother and little one become a team and the new family blends together. Realistic illustrations anchor the story’s milestones, starting and ending with the child’s fifth and sixth birthday parties. Smaller images, formatted like photos in a scrapbook, capture day-to-day life, from campouts to making paper airplanes. In contrast, the crayon art accompanying the rhymed text and gracing the endpapers is probably too sophisticated to be made by a 5- or 6-year-old, but it does add a playful sense of the child’s interpretation of events. Everything leads up to an “I’ll love you forever” moment and an acknowledgment of how having the child in her life has changed the stepmother. The stepmother presents white, while the child and the primary parent present Black.
A heartfelt reminder that patience and openness are crucial when families welcome new members. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593709139
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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