by Alison Reynolds ; illustrated by Heath McKenzie ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2013
Expressive Marmalade with his large green eyes will definitely charm cat lovers.
In Maddy’s absence, will Marmalade and Ella become friends?
One autumn day, Maddy tells Ella that her family is leaving for a year. Maddy also asks Ella to watch her orange tabby cat, Marmalade. Both Ella and Marmalade cry as Maddy’s family drives off. Ella tries all the things she liked doing with Maddy....She tosses leaves, but Marmalade doesn’t toss them back. She picks apples, but Marmalade just bats them away. She stomps through puddles, but she’s the only one that gets wet. Then one winter day, Ella wakes with warm feet (Marmalade’s been snuggling), and later Marmalade “reads” with her by the fireside. In spring, they dig in the garden, and they visit the beach in summer. When Maddy returns with autumn, all three friends enjoy every season together. Prolific Australian author Reynolds’ tale of friendship and seasons is a heartwarming one. Ella and Marmalade’s relationship develops slowly as the year progresses. McKenzie’s pen-and-ink illustrations, partially colored with watercolors, are sweet, wide-eyed and dynamic, often flowing along with the type. Though it’s odd that the reason for Maddy’s lengthy absence is never revealed, audiences will identify with Ella and her uncertainty with a new pet.
Expressive Marmalade with his large green eyes will definitely charm cat lovers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-8105-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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by Alison Reynolds ; illustrated by Serena Geddes
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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.
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
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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...
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
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
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