A soothing, fanciful adventure for those fretting about an upcoming performance.
In this Japanese import, a child imagines a fantastical mouse theater as a means of overcoming her piano-recital anxiety.
A glowering girl walks grimly forward on the title page, sheet music tucked under arm. Her red velvet dress, both celebratory and somber, reflects the duality of the occasion. As she repeats a calming mantra, she spies a “mouseling” doing the same. The latter invites the pixie-haired Momo—a young Japanese girl—to her mouse theater, where acrobats, dancers, and an orchestra perform. When it is the mouseling’s turn to go on stage, Momo graciously offers to accompany her on piano. As they fill the hall with music and joy, Momo realizes she has actually played at her own piano recital, and she stands to the audience’s applause. Using pencil, charcoal, and gouache, the artist uses a monochromatic palette to skillfully capture theatrical light and staging. Red and other, more-muted colors easily identify the protagonist and act as accents. As the fantasy world of mice and their performances is introduced, Miyakoshi’s artwork opens up into a lavish rendering of an exquisite mouse theater. Unfortunately, the visual density of the mouse world and the simplified interpretation of the human world—in particular the styling of Momo’s face—are not seamlessly merged. However, the beauty of the mice and their environment is a feast for the eyes.
A soothing, fanciful adventure for those fretting about an upcoming performance. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0257-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Sure to have little ones giggling.
Jacques is a hedgehog with a big secret: “I wear real, bona fide underwear.”
Our narrator received a mysterious package one day; an illustration shows a pair of underwear tied to a balloon with a note “from the Universe” floating down into Jacques’ burrow. Hedgehogs don’t wear underwear, however. Will Jacques be shunned? Jacques worries but comes to a decision: “I have to wear them. When I do I feel special.” Determined, Jacques, who’s been invited to a party, makes a dramatic entrance, with undies in hand. Jacques’ declaration (“I WEAR UNDERWEAR”) is met with remarks of dismay, before another hedgehog opens up about similar fears and shows off a pair of cowboy boots. More hedgehogs introduce themselves with their own confessions. The story ends with Jacques unveiling a painting of the underwear in a gallery filled with hedgehogs wearing all sorts of attire. Though the book is simple in plot, characters, and setting, it wins in its balance of bathroom humor, dramatic storytelling, and celebrations of individual expression. French words are peppered throughout, adding to the fun without detracting from the story for those unfamiliar with the language. The cartoonish illustrations brim with fun; Valdez relies heavily on geometric shapes (triangle noses for the hedgehogs; huge circles for their eyes). Details such as speech bubbles and recurring turtle and snake characters contribute to the outlandish humor.
Sure to have little ones giggling. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781250814388
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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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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