Next book

OFF THE WALL

Celebrating kids, art, and supportive communities, this gem deserves a wide audience.

Award-winning illustrator Taylor honors artistic expression and community support for street art in his authorial debut.

Narrator Sam moves cross-country with Mom and Dad, trading their beloved, pulsing city for a small, quiet town. Sam feels like an outsider “from another planet” at school, “ready to take the first spacecraft home.” A downtown encounter with gorgeous graffiti on a wall that spells out “EXPAND!!!” wows Sam, evoking the vibrancy of the city. But when Sam and older cousin Lincoln return, they find the wall painted over. Lincoln knows that street art hides all over town, though: “tags in the alley, stickers on street signs, stencils on the corner,” and more. “You just have to know where to look!” The pair then discover something extraordinary: an abandoned factory, alive with diverse graffiti artists transforming its interior walls. Sam, approaching a busy mother-daughter team, learns that the town has sanctioned the venue for rehabilitation as a community art space. Invited, Sam dons a respirator and gets to work. Final pages reveal the protagonist’s giant self-portrait as an astronaut against the word HOME, extending the theme of artistic and personal expansion. Taylor’s vibrant, explosive illustrations vividly capture street art’s dynamism in a palette with purple and gold highlights. He encodes messages of positivity into the graffiti—“XPLORE,” “HOPE”—as well as names and personal references. Sam, Lincoln, and Sam’s parents are Black; the mother and daughter Sam meets are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Celebrating kids, art, and supportive communities, this gem deserves a wide audience. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-62672-294-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022

Next book

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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

Next book

IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

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

Close Quickview