An encouraging tale for young readers with their own fears to face.
An outdoors-loving girl overcomes her fear of water in this picture-book debut about positive self-talk.
Vicky, an enthusiastic girl with warm brown skin, dark brown eyes, and curly puffs of hair, loves being outdoors and playing in mud and dirt with her friends. The rhyming narrative endorses this messiness but points out that this behavior is only OK if Vicky would be willing to take a bath each night: “But no, this is not her way.” Vicky’s fear of water keeps her from bathing more than once a week—and leaves her out when her best friends enjoy swimming at the beach. When one friend invites Vicky to a birthday party at a water park, Vicky determines that the time to overcome her fear has arrived. The Ssentamus, a married Australian team, introduce internal voices Negative Ned and Positive Ted to help readers understand how self-talk—and the voice Vicky chooses to listen to—influences Vicky's ability to overcome her fears. The rhyming stanzas flow well throughout and only occasionally introduce an unfamiliar term (fortnight) that might cause young American readers to stumble. Alshalabi’s warm digital cartoonlike illustrations capture both Vicky’s exuberance and her fear, and Vicky’s diverse friends and family (her mother has peach-toned skin with blue eyes and blond hair; her father, a deeper sepia skin tone and curly brown hair like Vicky’s) offer many young readers a chance to see themselves represented on the page. An afterword offers conversation starters for families to discuss fear and courage.
An encouraging tale for young readers with their own fears to face.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-6451293-0-4
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Pixel Publishing House
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pearson is a slug intimate, having previously charted the course of two Slugs in Love (illustrated by Kevin O'Malley, 2006), so who better to explain, exactly, the best way to teach a slug to read? It is really quite elementary, starting with opening the book (make sure it has slug characters), read it to the slug, point out repeating words, help sound them out, get a vocabulary list going, underline favorite words and, you bet, “[r]ead your slug’s favorite poems to him as many times as he wants. Read him other books too!” This slug’s favorite is Mother Slug’s book of poetry, with such old gems as “Mary had a little slug, / His skin was smooth as silk” and “Whatever can the matter be? / Sally Slug has climbed a tree” and “Sweet Sammy Slug / Slides through the town.” Slonim’s upbeat illustrations give readers a sense that they are there with the slugs, flipping the pages, while the interjections from the slugs—“Sl-uh-uh-g! Hey, I can read SLUG!”—convey, with a light hand, the joys of reading. And though it isn’t cricket to diminish a slug’s capabilities, readers can’t help but feel that if a slug is up to the task, well then, maybe someone else in the room is, too. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5805-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
© Copyright 2025 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.
