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
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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