A mighty message certain to bolster students readying themselves for the first day of school—and all year round.
The collaborators behind the bestselling All Are Welcome (2018) and its follow-ups return with a picture book from an educator’s perspective.
The child with the yellow shirt and blue yarmulke, the kid with the orange braids who uses a wheelchair—the students in this classroom will be familiar to fans of Penfold and Kaufman’s earlier works. This time around, the omniscient narrator has been replaced by a brown-skinned, dark-haired teacher who spends the book telling the kids (including an uncertain-looking new student) what to expect from the school year. There will be joys as well as challenges: “We will try new things / that we’ve never done before. / You might feel a bit nervous / or a little unsure.” The book’s rhymes are more pedestrian than the ones that elevated All Are Welcome, but the text delivers on the series’ hallmark and is likely to engender a feeling of calm, belonging, and reassurance (“You can do anything! / How do I know? / I’m your teacher. // I’ll watch you grow!”). The same holds true for the digital paint, ink, crayon, and collage art, which sets the racially and culturally diverse students against flat white backgrounds—the better for foregrounding each kid’s unique look and personality.
A mighty message certain to bolster students readying themselves for the first day of school—and all year round. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9798217030507
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 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
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