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THE FIRST DAY OF PEACE

Name: THE FIRST DAY OF PEACE
Author: Todd Shuster
ISBN: 9781536207590

by Todd Shuster with Maya Soetoro-Ng ; illustrated by Tatiana Gardel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2023

An earnest, slightly preachy call to action to look after one another.

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One brave act of kindness can be a catalyst for peace.

Mountain families and valley families live in a lush environment, surrounded by terraced farms and verdant meadows. They both depend on water for sustenance and survival, using it to grow crops, wash clothes, and more. But the changing climate causes the water level to rise and fall, wreaking havoc on this bucolic existence and causing strife. Neither group wants to help the other, preferring to guard their own precious resources. When severe floods put the valley people in a precarious situation, a mountain child insists that the mountain people step in and help their neighbors. This first step begins a cascade of subsequent acts of kindness that eventually restore peace. Using simple and somewhat didactic prose, Shuster and Soetoro-Ng present the lesson of the golden rule in, fittingly, the form of a parable. Gardel alternates between warm and cool palettes, depicting a racially diverse cast of people, and inserts motifs like the sun and the moon to emphasize the importance of nature to these people’s lives. Her style evokes traditional folktales, in which some people have recognizable facial features and others are only simple, colorful forms. The book would be an adequate starting point for curriculum units on compassion, service, and social emotional learning. The work closes with an afterword by Soetoro-Ng, co-founder of the Peace Studio, an organization that helps artists and journalists work toward social change. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An earnest, slightly preachy call to action to look after one another. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023

ISBN: 9781536207590

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

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FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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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)