A useful, compassionate debut that offers astute guidance for fitting in.
In this thoughtful debut children’s book by a veteran educator, a first-grader with difficulty relating to others embarks on a “friendship journey” and socially blossoms with help from caring adults.
Six-year-old Zander, happily home-schooled by his grandmother, had never been to school with other children, but he’s looking forward to attending his neighborhood elementary school. Only days after joining the Terrific Tadpoles class, grades 1 and 2, Zander comes home upset, convinced that his teachers, Mrs. Perez and Miss Rivers, are unhappy with him. “Their mouths look frowny and sad” when they watch him sometimes, Zander tells Miss Joy, a family friend. Even Zander’s grandmother seems unhappy lately, he thinks. (Adults will understand that Zander lives with his grandparents and that Zander’s teachers have talked to his “Nana” about their concerns.) Miss Joy gently elicits the fact that Zander doesn’t smile or say hello to teachers at school, and she helps him practice friendly greetings and making eye contact. Zander is embarking on a “friendship journey,” she says: “Are you ready to do some greeting, smiling, and eyeball-locking next week at school?” Zander gives it a try, and although his first smile is “crooked and wobbly,” he finds that making his teachers happy makes him happy, too, so much so that he’s brave enough to use his new social skill to gain his new friend, Emmy Lee. He stumbles a bit due to his anxiety over anything new—“For Zander, the word ‘new’ could mean a fun adventure or a scary experience”—as well as his trying to grasp the concepts of sharing and casual, getting-to-know-you conversation. But Miss Joy reminds Zander that a friendship journey can be tricky, and he perseveres, soon discovering that sharing, taking turns and talking with friends can be fun. Hardin’s appealing, carefully crafted book, written for “children, family members, and school-based professionals,” will resonate with young readers facing similar challenges and with the adults helping them. The book’s uncredited illustrations, however, while serviceable, are flawed by the lifelessness of the children’s oversized, downturned eyes.
A useful, compassionate debut that offers astute guidance for fitting in.Pub Date: April 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1483932149
Page Count: 38
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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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