A heartfelt celebration of cultural heritage.
Kaveri Thanjavur Jayalakshmi Ganesan isn’t fond of her long name and prefers to go by Kav.
The young protagonist learns about the origins of her names while she, her parents, and her grandmother, whom she calls Paati, journey to celebrate Kaveri Pushkaram, a festival that honors the Kaveri River. Before they leave Paati’s home, the child notices green riverbanks and lush waterfalls. Paati tells her she was named for the river—and for her great-great-grandmother. Next, they buy train tickets for Thanjavur, their ancestral home in Tamil Nadu, India, and one of Kaveri’s namesakes. Paati reminds the child how on their last visit, she got her some bommai, or clay dolls. Kaveri’s mother notes that the child shares both her parents’ names. Both mother and daughter are named Jayalakshmi, after the goddess who protects the river. Finally, the name Ganesan comes from her father’s name, Ganesha. At the journey’s end, where the river meets the ocean, Kaveri finally realizes that her name embodies her birthplace and her heritage. Though earlier, Kaveri mentions that some people “trip over my name,” long names aren’t uncommon in India, suggesting that the child lives elsewhere. While Kaveri’s pride is evident by book’s end, readers don’t get much insight into her emotional state or thoughts; at times, the story feels like a list of cultural touchstones. Still, the artwork is vivid, with striking use of color and depictions of clothing, jewelry, foods, rituals, and distinctive temple architecture.
A heartfelt celebration of cultural heritage. (glossary, author’s note, getting names right, about the Kaveri River, map of South India, poems and sayings about the river) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9780593522936
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning.
Children realize their dreams one step at a time in this story about growth mindset.
A child crashes and damages a new bicycle on a dark, rainy day. Attempting a wheelie, the novice cyclist falls onto the sidewalk, grimacing, and, having internalized this setback as failure, vows to never ride again but to “walk…forever.” Then the unnamed protagonist happens upon a glowing orb in the forest, a “thought rearranger-er”—a luminous pink fairy called the Magical Yet. This Yet reminds the child of past accomplishments and encourages perseverance. The second-person rhyming couplets remind readers that mistakes are part of learning and that with patience and effort, children can achieve. Readers see the protagonist learn to ride the bike before a flash-forward shows the child as a capable college graduate confidently designing a sleek new bike. This book shines with diversity: racial, ethnic, ability, and gender. The gender-indeterminate protagonist has light brown skin and exuberant curly locks; Amid the bustling secondary cast, one child uses a prosthesis, and another wears hijab. At no point in the text is the Yet defined as a metaphor for a growth mindset; adults reading with younger children will likely need to clarify this abstract lesson. The artwork is powerful and detailed—pay special attention to the endpapers that progress to show the Yet at work.
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-02562-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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