A beautifully wrought celebration of making a day your own.
A child must accompany Mama to the diner where she works, but long hours and rules about being quiet can’t prevent them from having a joyful weekend together.
Saturdays begin before sunrise, the pair catching a crosstown bus to the “egg-crackin’, pancake-flippin’, orange-juicin’ brunch shift” that Mama can’t afford to miss. The protagonist must remain unseen for much of the chaotic day rather than risk incurring the wrath of Mr. Wong, Mama’s boss. But the child finds moments of reprieve with Mama, slipping into shared imaginings of being brave knights, sharp-eyed detectives, record-breaking sprinters, and more. Thurman resists easy sentimentality, where pretend play might simply erase fatigue and constraint. Instead, the text emphasizes imagination as connection, allowing tiredness and longing for an unhurried, “regular old Saturday” to share space with the transformative games and the deep delight of togetherness. DeRoma’s collage-style illustrations similarly capture the unyielding thrum of the busy shift while seamlessly layering (rather than obscuring) the real with the imagined. The loud diner becomes a dragon’s lair; a sink piled with dishes transforms into an auriferous creek. Shifts in palette and perspective mirror the narrative’s emotional arc, presenting young readers with a thoughtful balance of weariness and agency. Mother and child present Black.
A beautifully wrought celebration of making a day your own. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9780593808177
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
