by Shawna J.C. Tenney ; illustrated by Shawna J.C. Tenney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016
A tale about doing nice things for others that goes down easily.
What goes around comes around for one witch who loves to make trouble—i.e., make people miserable.
Brunhilda, a pale-skinned, warty witch, has a routine: get out of bed on the wrong side, put on her ugliest dress, eat spider mush, and brush her three snaggled teeth with candy. Then it’s off to use her favorite spell to rain on picnics, cause pimples to appear, or wilt a bouquet of flowers. That is, until the cat decides to make trouble of its own in revenge for some of the nasty tricks and treatment it’s been the brunt of. The next morning goes decidedly differently for Brunhilda, and her favorite spell has the exact opposite effect as the one she was going for: instead of falling, a white boy’s ice cream cone quadruples, and a racially diverse trio of children fly on their bikes rather than crash. Finally succeeding in making a playground disappear, she realizes it’s not as satisfying as the high-five and cheering she got for doing nice things, albeit unintentionally. She and the cat cook up some fun that night, and though things appear to be back to normal for Brunhilda, some changes are permanent. Tenney’s vignette, single-page, and double-page illustrations play up the emotions of the characters. Especially masterful is the spread of the cat in its mad-scientist, green-glowing glory.
A tale about doing nice things for others that goes down easily. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63450-691-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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by Stacy McAnulty ; illustrated by Shawna J.C. Tenney
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
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...
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)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival
by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival
by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival
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