by Amy Hest ; illustrated by Philip C. Stead ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2023
A sparkling reminder that nothing is as powerful as a child’s imagination.
Being alone can be fun—but so can spending time with a pal.
The book opens with the titular phrase as a tan-skinned child with enormous, dark-rimmed glasses sits at a table, a stuffed elephant at their feet. “Just you, eating your cookie, alone. But what if a friend pops in?” Suddenly, the elephant—now huge and rendered with astonishingly realistic detail—joins the child’s snack time. Readers will laugh out loud as the text continues to calmly acknowledge how nice it is when a friend comes along to share cookies. The other adventures in the book also start with the titular phrase and a different, initially inconspicuous toy animal that comes to vivid life. Reading a book with a horse, somersaulting with a whale, trampling autumn leaves with a dinosaur—the list goes on, as does the synergy of words, art, and layout. The text is simple and eloquent, with enough repetition to captivate the youngest readers but also with precise, often lyrical, descriptions for each activity. The child’s imagination is sometimes evident even before the animals come to life; in one scene, where text describes the child biking up a hill, “pushing and panting,” the illustration depicts them riding up a slightly angled board propped against a barrel. The fantastical adventures wind down at bedtime—but is that a penguin under the bed? (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sparkling reminder that nothing is as powerful as a child’s imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4947-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016
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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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Hoda Kotb ; illustrated by Chloe Dominique ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
Pleasant enough but not particularly original.
Uplifting messages of positivity from the Today show anchor.
Hope springs eternal, so the saying goes. Kotb agrees, here delivering to children the cheery news that hope lives inside all of them and that whatever they might wish for can be theirs. All they need is a sunny outlook, and the possibilities for happy outcomes are virtually endless. Children’s dreams can be in-the-moment ones—like purple ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry—or more far-ranging ones, such as growing tall enough to reach that high shelf easily or for hair that’s long enough to braid. It doesn’t matter, the author reassures young readers. Your aspirations will be realized, so don’t give up on them—just keep believing in them and, most of all, in yourself. Throughout, Kotb calls hope a rainbow, a feeling, a gift, and a wish. Hope is “new friends you’ll find— / friends who are loving and funny and kind.” Hope is “practicing your heart out, letter by letter.” The book’s overarching theme is upbeat, but its bouncy rhyming text is clumsy. The child-appealing illustrations are colorful and lively, though they have a generic look. The cast of wide-eyed characters is racially diverse; some have visible disabilities.
Pleasant enough but not particularly original. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593624128
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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by Hoda Kotb ; illustrated by Suzie Mason
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