A heartfelt, inspiring story of second chances.
Davis presents a picture book about an abandoned toy bear facing an uncertain future after ending up in a lost-and-found.
This familiar tale of a misplaced toy rediscovering love and purpose adds a clever twist: It’s based on the true story of the Owens family—the founders of Unclaimed Baggage, a company dedicated to rehoming “orphaned” luggage and its contents. Bear is never far from a young boy, Big Brother, whose parents save lost items from the dump. Together, the boy and bear play hide-and-seek, have imaginary adventures, and watch as books, jewelry, toys, and clothes are sorted, cleaned, and repaired. When Bear’s turn comes, the boy gently holds his paw. At a neighborhood yard sale, Bear sadly watches other items find loving homes until he realizes he already “belonged to a family who loved him.” The Owens family is portrayed with pale skin; other characters have a range of skin tones. Davis effectively uses short paragraphs and single sentences layered over Allison’s warm, full-page watercolor-style illustrations which, together, bring the story to life. The artist’s masterful use of contrast highlights characters in bustling scenes and distills feelings of abandonment and belonging. This read-aloud gem will have young listeners clutching their teddy bears a little tighter, while adults will find inspiration in the story of still-thriving Unclaimed Baggage.
A heartfelt, inspiring story of second chances.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9798998773808
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Reclaimed for Good Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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