Bighearted, heart-gladdening, and—best—a light-hearted approach to finding friends.
Who said St. George had the last word when it comes to dragons? Not Sauer’s mite, nor his fire-breathing friends.
A ragamuffin makes himself a dragon costume. He may look like one of the lads from Sherwood Forest, but he plays the part of a dragon well. Well...not so much when two real dragons drop by for a visit. “ROAR! Look at me, look at me! I’m a dragon.” “No. You’re not,” says a dragon. Why, I tower over my cat, I’m toothy, I breathe fire, the boy...well...suggests. Take a look, the dragons suggest in return—not at all superior about their talents, but there’s no doubting who’s a dragon and who’s a kid. “Waaaaaaaaahhhh!” wahs the kid, sealing the fact he’s no dragon. But look what you can do, the dragons say: play hide-and-seek, turn cartwheels, and eat ice cream (the dragons dismally fail at all these). “Waaaaaaaaahhh!” wah the dragons, jeopardizing their dragon status with all the wahing when it dawns on them what they are missing. No one likes to see dragons cry, so the boy points out their commonalities: they can all make silly and scary faces; they can all do the funky monkey. What more, really, do friends need, other than to share time and do weird things? Friendship can be pretty simple, at least at the start, and Sauer—along with some glittering, inviting artwork from Starin—provides encouragement to jump in, despite the incongruities, maybe even because of them.
Bighearted, heart-gladdening, and—best—a light-hearted approach to finding friends. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0224-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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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