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MY BRIGHT FRIEND

Name: MY BRIGHT FRIEND
Author: Simon Boulerice
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2189-7

by Simon Boulerice ; illustrated by Marilyn Faucher ; translated by Sophie B. Watson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 2019

Readers hoping for strong storytelling won’t find it here.

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A child coping with divorce finds comfort in an unexpected place.

The opening lines, translated from French, explain in a very unchildlike tone that “Ludo’s parents didn’t love each other anymore. There was nothing to be done—love is like a flame, and their love had been extinguished.” After this early mention of Ludo’s mother, she never appears again, and instead the story takes place when Ludo stays with his city-dwelling father. Ludo doesn’t like being there and spends his days indoors, but when he looks outside he sees a traffic light and is captivated. His father playfully tells him a “very patient little man” lives inside of it and changes the lights. Ludo believes him and worries about the man, so he decides to leave him toast with jam each night. He’s delighted when he finds only crumbs on the plate the next day, and Ludo’s father is, in turn, delighted by his son’s spirited imagination. A series of curious events suggests that Ludo isn’t imagining this exchange at all and that the little man really does live in the traffic light. Unfortunately, the wordy story’s logic has many holes, and they aren’t filled by the illustrations, resulting in a less-than-satisfying picture book. In Faucher’s bright, naïve illustrations, the cast is an all-white one.

Readers hoping for strong storytelling won’t find it here. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4598-2189-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
FLORENCE & LEON
by Simon Boulerice ; illustrated by Delphie Coté-Lacroix ; translated by Sophie B. Watson

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GOOD NIGHT THOUGHTS

by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by James Serafino ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2024

Relatable guidance for nocturnal worriers.

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Actor and author Greenfield’s latest picture book follows a child kept awake by anxieties.

The pajama-clad narrator huddles in bed among the blue shadows of a bedroom at night. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m afraid of all the scary stuff I see.” Bright, candy-hued clouds of cartoon images surround the child, lively, disruptive depictions of the what-ifs and exaggerated disasters that crowd out sleep: war (we see the world pop “into a piece of popcorn”), kidnapping (pirates carry away the child’s teddy bear), falling “up” into the sun, tarantulas in the toilet, and a menacing-looking dentist. These outsize insomnia inducers may help readers put their own unvoiced concerns into perspective; after all, what frightens one person might seem silly but understandable to another. Our narrator tries to replace the unsettling thoughts with happy ones—hugging a baby panda, being serenaded by a choir of doughnuts, and “all the people who love me holding hands and wearing every piece of clothing that they own.” But sleep is still elusive. Finally, remembering that there’s a difference between reality and an overactive imagination, the child relaxes a bit: “Right now, everything is okay. And so am I.” Reassuring, though not exactly sedate, this tale will spark daytime discussions about how difficult it can be to quiet unsettling thoughts. The child has dark hair and blue-tinged skin, reflecting the darkness of the bedroom.

Relatable guidance for nocturnal worriers. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024

ISBN: 9780593697894

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BOOK ALOUD
by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

- BOOK REVIEW
THIS BOOK IS NOT A PRESENT
by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

- BOOK REVIEW
I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BOOK
by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

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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)