Not for beginners, but older children may use this as a springboard for their own shape hunts.
Howells give familiar shapes both personalities and back stories in her authorial debut.
Everyone at Shapeston Elementary is excited about the auditions for the upcoming play, especially the shapes. They’ve had lots of practice playing roles and doing jobs already. Each of the six—Triangle, Square, Circle, Rectangle, Rhombus (aka “Diamond to her friends”), and Oval—gets his or her own double-page spread to serve as an introduction, cleverly pointing out to kids the many places they can find shapes in the everyday world. “Maybe you saw [Triangle] strutting her stuff on that sailboat in the bay.” “[Diamond] dazzles in patterns—check out your uncle’s argyle socks.” The right-hand pages of these intros present montages that show many of them in action: Circle as clock face, Rectangle as tablet screen, etc. Some of the real-world applications are clearer than others (the frosted green Diamond-shaped shortbread feels entirely arbitrary, for instance), and for Square’s help with math, children may need the picture to make the connection. In the end, everyone gets a part, and the shapes play integral roles in the scenery. Howells’ digital artwork is bright and colorful and clearly shows the many places shapes can be found. However, her text is far too long for any audience that is just learning about shapes, and the play is a rather weak device.
Not for beginners, but older children may use this as a springboard for their own shape hunts. (Math picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55453-743-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
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
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
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