Will most certainly inspire young cartographers to chart their own worlds.
After a girl receives a journal for her birthday, she uses it to map her neighborhood and her day.
Ruby, an East Asian–presenting youngster, is excited to take a walk outside for her first “solo mapping day.” Her mother is a cartographer, but today it’s Ruby’s turn; Mama will be following behind at a safe distance, in case of emergencies. As she walks, Ruby draws what she sees: her own home with its gray garage and red mailbox. She writes, too (after all, a map must be a “good show-and-tell”): “three steps down, past the mailbox.” Phumiruk’s clean illustrations in soft colors are a sedate foil to Ruby’s hand-drawn icons representing each thing she sees on her walk, with dotted lines charting her path and written notes labeling her pictures. Each image of a real-life scene is juxtaposed with Ruby’s interpretation, giving readers the feeling of peeking into her notebook. Ruby draws landmarks, animals, people, and even her own imaginings. As her walk comes to a conclusion, Daddy is waiting, ready to take her to his house for a birthday celebration, where she can map the “other half of her crowded and always interesting world”—a subtle acknowledgment that Ruby is the child of amicably divorced parents. The backmatter, aimed at educators, includes further reading and several activities.
Will most certainly inspire young cartographers to chart their own worlds. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780316478441
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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