A read-out-loud delight; kids will love this rollicking insect tale.
Some fun-loving bugs learn a lesson in responsibility in this picture book.
The Waga-Laga Bugs are a family of three beetles: one larger, blue-green, and roach-like; one pinky-orange and antlered; and one yellow and child-sized with glasses. More than anything, the Waga-Laga Bugs love to play. They try to convince the bees to join them, but they’re too busy preparing for a storm, as are the ants, ladybugs, spider, and caterpillar. All these would-be playmates warn the Waga-Laga Bugs of the approaching danger. A butterfly tells them: “Careful, Waga-Laga Bugs! If all you do is play, / you may not have the things you need when TROUBLE comes your way.” But the Waga-Laga Bugs won’t listen, instead offering a denial whose repeated refrain children will boisterously embrace: “But the Waga-Laga Bugs said, Nah. NO WAY! / We only wanna Waga-Laga, Taga-Laga, PLAY!” This carefree life philosophy gets curtailed by a spectacular, lightning-skewered, two-page “BOOM” when the storm hits. The Waga-Laga Bugs learn their lesson, and they start helping the others when there’s work to be done. Chitty narrates in rhyming couplets whose trochaic heptameter (and occasional octameter) gives the text a chanty, twisty, clap-along momentum. Attema-Welte brings the action to life through lusciously textured, watery, smudgy illustrations that burst with joy and yet embrace the darker end of the rainbow spectrum. A three-page factual addendum supplements the learnings already imparted.
A read-out-loud delight; kids will love this rollicking insect tale.Pub Date: April 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798998787713
Page Count: 40
Publisher: CCBB Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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