A well-told story featuring creative kids who excel at fashioning their own fun.
Zuri Ray loves a good party.
When our protagonist, who was introduced in Zuri Ray Tries Ballet (2021), decides to throw a summer bash, her parents suggest reusing the decorations from Zuri’s third birthday party, playing ’80s music, and making an olive Jell-O mold. Bad ideas! So, with her parents’ encouragement, Zuri springs into action to plan her own fête with help from her sister, Remi. Their friends come over and volunteer to get their families to contribute food and decorations. The kids decide on a menu of barbecue and tacos, and they plan the party around a talent show in which the kids will perform. When the day arrives, Lupe dances to Swan Lake, the Patel twins perform magic tricks, Remi and Tessa do a hip-hop number, and Zuri plays guitar and sings. A few mishaps threaten to derail the show, but Zuri and friends recover beautifully, with the help of Zuri’s caring parents, and they all prepare for a grand finale guaranteed to please everyone. Sordo’s colorful, digitally created illustrations portray a loving, diverse community of friends and family. Biracial Zuri, who has brown skin and an Afro, has a White dad and a Black mom; her friends are diverse; and no two (except the twins) have the same skin tone or hair texture. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A well-told story featuring creative kids who excel at fashioning their own fun. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-291804-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
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)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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