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BRONCO AND FRIENDS

Name: BRONCO AND FRIENDS
Author: Tim Tebow
ISBN: 978-0-593-23204-0

A PARTY TO REMEMBER

by Tim Tebow with A.J. Gregory & illustrated by Jane Chapman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2021

Well-meaning but muddled.

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Bronco the nearsighted dog doesn’t feel worthy of a party invitation.

All the animals in the forest have been invited to a party at which guests will complete a puzzle with a piece they will “find…when [they] realize [they] are made purposefully.” But “because Bronco had terrible vision, he didn’t think he was special enough to go to the party. So he’d thrown out the invitation.” At Squirrel’s urging, Bronco abruptly changes his mind. Putting on his blue eyeglasses, he sets out, on the way meeting other animals who also feel they are unworthy of the invitation for various baseless reasons. He bucks them up so they join him, and they return the favor when he has second thoughts himself. They are all welcomed warmly to the party by Colby, the panda host, who produces Bronco’s missing puzzle piece. Bronco fits it into the center of the puzzle, but rather than expanding on the puzzle metaphor, Colby says, “Each creature is born unique. Our differences make us special.” (This sentiment is reiterated with a closing epigraph from Ephesians 2:10.) Concrete-thinking children may be distracted from the message by wondering just how Colby got Bronco’s puzzle piece. Moreover and troublingly, the story never explicitly dismisses Bronco’s disability as a reason to feel worthless, instead simply celebrating Bronco’s strengths, including his “gift of sniff.” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 21% of actual size.)

Well-meaning but muddled. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-23204-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: WaterBrook

Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
SHAKEN
by Tim Tebow & A.J. Gregory

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)