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LUNCH, OR WHAT'S THAT?

Name: LUNCH, OR WHAT'S THAT?
Author: Julianne Moore
ISBN: 978-0-385-39192-4

From the Freckleface Strawberry series

by Julianne Moore ; illustrated by LeUyen Pham ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2015

New readers deserve better.

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Moore lampoons school lunches in this early-reader series outing.

Both Freckleface Strawberry and her heavy friend Windy Pants Patrick (readers may well wonder about his name, as he is wearing shorts) love to eat. They love hot dogs, grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, chicken fingers, and noodles. But neither especially likes to eat school lunches. One day, Freckleface sits down with an especially interesting-looking lunch consisting of a bowl of green noodles. In an unfunny schtick that’s repeated too many times, one by one three friends ask her what it is. “That is lunch.” “But what is it?” “I do not know.” Finally, after a teacher shushes them for yelling instead of eating, Freckleface digs in. And though she still may not know what lunch is, she does know that she likes it. Moore’s characters lack personality, though at least classmate Noah has a trait—yelling instead of talking—that makes him stand out from the others. And though the subject is near and dear to readers’ hearts, this treatment can’t hold a candle to the likes of True Kelley’s School Lunch (2005). Pham’s illustrations portray Freckleface, Windy Pants, and Noah as starkly white; Southeast Asian Winnie is Freckleface’s only friend of color. There are two other brown girls in the cafeteria, but they have no interactions with the main characters.

New readers deserve better. (Early reader. 4-7)

Pub Date: July 14, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-385-39192-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
FRECKLEFACE STRAWBERRY AND THE REALLY BIG VOICE
by Julianne Moore ; illustrated by LeUyen Pham

- BOOK REVIEW
BACKPACKS!
by Julianne Moore ; illustrated by LeUyen Pham

- BOOK REVIEW
MY MOM IS A FOREIGNER, BUT NOT TO ME
by Julianne Moore ; illustrated by Meilo So

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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

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

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Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)