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CAMILLA, SUPER HELPER

Name: CAMILLA, SUPER HELPER
Author: Julie Dillemuth
ISBN: 9781433841934

by Julie Dillemuth ; illustrated by Laura Wood ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2023

Winsome lessons in problem-solving and collaboration.

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Helpful friends make mighty superheroes.

Camilla, a wild boar, and Parsley, her porcupine neighbor, are discussing superpowers when their honeybee friend Melli flies in through the window. She explains she’s been exhausted lately because flowers are so sparse that she and fellow hive mates must fly long distances for their nectar and pollen. Camilla comes up with a plan: establishing water stations and planting flowers in the forest. Melli and her fellow bees offer advice on station locations and which flowers to plant. Camilla, a keen cartographer, devises a map on which to mark the station setups, ensuring their proximity to the hive. Other forest animals pitch in, and a big party celebrates the work’s completion. At summer’s end, there’s more to cheer: Flowers bloom, the bees have stored lots of honey, and Melli has more visiting time. Parsley tells Camilla her “special powers” are “spatial,” with Melli adding that Camilla and Parsley are both “super.” Besides offering an introduction to spatial thinking, this story explores cooperation and bee conservation and teaches simple methods for assisting nature’s vital pollinators. Younger children likely won’t understand the calculations Camilla uses to create her map; those unfamiliar with metric measurements also might get confused. The colorful, lively illustrations are appealing; the animal protagonists are expressive and sympathetic. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Winsome lessons in problem-solving and collaboration. (note to parents & caregivers) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 16, 2023

ISBN: 9781433841934

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association

Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
CAMILLA, CARTOGRAPHER
by Julie Dillemuth ; illustrated by Laura Wood

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THE WATER PRINCESS

by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...

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An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.

Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ARE YOU LISTENING?
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO I AM
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

- BOOK REVIEW
CAN YOU SEE IT?
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

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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)