An insightful portrayal of childhood loss and healing.
A girl struggling with grief receives help from a classmate and her father.
Lily has “a hole”—represented by a dusky violet circle on her T-shirt. Her sadness persists through festivities on her birthday, a beach trip, and more. Despite her empathetic father’s attempts to help, Lily’s hole grows as she withdraws from favorite pastimes and routines. At school, Thomas notices her distress and confides, “I have a hole too.” Thomas shows her the patches on his T-shirt. “They help you repair the hole.” Lily works on creating patches with Thomas at school, at home with Daddy, and alone. Lily’s and Thomas’ patches are symbols of things that can help us heal—pets, nature, music, and connections with others. Lehrhaupt sensitively handles a common emotional side effect of healing from grief: worrying that moving on means forgetting. “If I patch it completely, will I still remember?” asks Lily. “You won’t forget,” he reassures her. “But things will get better.” By showing Lily beginning to recover due in part to the help of a friend, Lehrhaupt demonstrates that kids have the ability to help themselves and others heal from loss. Gentle illustrations, often set against white backdrops, portray Lily and her dad with light brown skin and dark hair. Thomas has dark brown skin and curly hair; students in the classroom are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An insightful portrayal of childhood loss and healing. (author’s note, “how to make a patch” activity) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-53411-122-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Another empowering outing led by a dynamic young role model.
The third title in the Ambitious Girl series finds young Maya wanting accomplished women to get their due.
On a school trip to Washington, D.C., brown-skinned, bubble-braided Maya is full of questions, among them “How many representatives are there?” and, while checking out the statues and monuments, “Where are all the women?” Maya’s teacher tells her that they’ve seen all the “popular” statues and monuments. Maya is as dogged (“But what about Eleanor Roosevelt? Or Mary McLeod Bethune?”) as her teacher is dismissive: “Those aren’t on my list.” (Maya’s teacher follows the same list every trip.) Back at home, Maya is newly awakened to the lack of female representation in her orbit—she notices that streets and “even her own school” are named for men. Is there anything she can do about this? Maya’s teacher’s cluelessness feels a bit implausible, more like a plot device to steer the story in the right direction, but Maya’s righteous indignation is believable, and her corresponding activism will energize readers. Valdez gets into the spirit of things with her invigorating digital art: Maya and her multiethnic classmates and neighbors are colorful dressers with smiling faces, which fosters a sense that wherever Maya goes, a warm and ebullient community is there for her.
Another empowering outing led by a dynamic young role model. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780316561341
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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