A reminder that wisdom comes in different forms and from different sources.
Sometimes slowness wins out over speed.
Hamor, a donkey belonging to Egypt’s renowned Rabbi Moses Maimonides, unhurriedly carries his master to the sultan’s palace daily and learns much from the wise thoughts he expresses aloud. One day, the sultan asks the rabbi to write a medical book, but he has little time, so the sultan provides a sleek horse to deliver the rabbi to the palace more swiftly. Good news for the rabbi, sorrowful news for Hamor, who misses hearing the rabbi’s lessons. The rabbi isn’t altogether pleased, however, agreeing that the rapid horse allows him more time for writing—but less time for thinking. He realizes that he requires slower-paced journeys to gather his thoughts while traveling: Riding Hamor is his “only time for thinking in [his] whole day.” In the end, perhaps it’s Hamor who teaches a wise scholar a valuable lesson? This thought-provoking tale will be especially welcome in Jewish school and synagogue-library collections as an introduction to the acclaimed 12th-century Spanish-born Sephardic Jewish scholar-philosopher Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (also called Maimonides). Based on Maimonides’ own writing, it advances a gentle, respectful message about human-animal relationships. Architectural and apparel styles, vegetation, and decorative motifs strongly evoke the Middle Eastern setting; yellow ocher, russets, and orange-browns convey the warm hues of desert sands. Humans, Hamor, and animal characters are expressive; the people are brown-skinned.
A reminder that wisdom comes in different forms and from different sources. (historical note; portrait of Rabbi Moses Maimonides) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781728445595
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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