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I AM A THIEF!

Name: I AM A THIEF!
Author: Abigail Rayner
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4289-2

by Abigail Rayner ; illustrated by Molly Ruttan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

Hilarious and sweet, with a gentle, affirming moral.

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Eliza is appalled to discover that she is a thief; can she ever redeem herself?

It all starts when Eliza—Line Leader, Caring Friend, Captain of the Worm Rescue Team—swipes a sparkly stone from the table in her classroom. It wasn’t her fault. The stone made her do it. But as soon as it’s hers, Eliza becomes a thief. Her reflection looks back at her through a bandit’s mask, and the stone, wearing devilish horns and a pointy tail, oppresses her all day. As the entire class searches for the stone, Eliza agonizes about putting it back. What if someone sees? She goes home and asks the adults in her life if they have ever stolen anything. Her father hasn’t, but nearly everyone else admits to having stolen something. Still, Eliza goes to bed in tears, thinking of her disappointed classmates. The next day, she returns the stone to Ms. Delano. And rather than judge her harshly, Ms. Delano calls her…“BRAVE?” Eliza realizes that “nobody is just a thief. Everyone is a lot of things!” This humorous story speaks to anyone who has made a regrettable mistake, rounding it out with a gently ironic surprise final spread. The playful illustrations feature textured shading and expressive lines highlighting Eliza’s active imagination. Eliza and her family present as white; Ms. Delano has brown skin, and Eliza’s classmates are multiracial.

Hilarious and sweet, with a gentle, affirming moral. (Picture book. 4-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-7358-4289-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: NorthSouth

Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
VIOLET AND THE CRUMBS
by Abigail Rayner ; illustrated by Molly Ruttan

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BACKUP BUNNY
by Abigail Rayner ; illustrated by Greg Stones

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)