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THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND

Name: THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND
Author: Andrew Gold
ISBN: 9780593903094

by Andrew Gold ; illustrated by Sanne Dufft ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2026

Unlikely to be a storytime hit, but good retro fun for adult readers.

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An easy-listening earworm gets the picture-book treatment.

“Thank you for being a friend! // Traveled down a road… / and back again. / Your heart is true. / You’re a pal and a confidant.” The titular song began its life in 1978 as a hit for singer-songwriter Gold and became the theme song for the enduringly beloved sitcom The Golden Girls (1985-1992). The kid-appropriate lyrics lay out various ways that the singer’s devotion to the song’s unnamed dedicatee would be unrivaled: “If it’s a car you lack, / I’d surely buy you a Cadillac!” The trouble—for this picture book and others inspired by songs—is that when not sung, lyrics can be listless on the page and, when the chorus comes along, repetitive. (“Thank you for being a friend” appears eight times on this book’s last few pages.) Helping matters is the variety in Dufft’s gouache and colored-pencil art, which captures racially and generationally diverse friendship clusters playing soccer, making music, and otherwise having a good time. Dufft’s figures are sometimes awkward, but she includes a thrilling easter egg for adult readers, for whom this book will likely be a nostalgia trip: repeated appearances by an elder who looks remarkably like Golden Girl Sophia Petrillo—a suspicion confirmed toward book’s end by an illustration of the fabulous foursome sharing what sure looks like a cheesecake.

Unlikely to be a storytime hit, but good retro fun for adult readers. (more information on the song) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 2, 2026

ISBN: 9780593903094

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
SPOOKY, SCARY SKELETONS
by Andrew Gold ; illustrated by Polona Lovšin

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THE PUMPKIN THIEF

From the Leaf Thief series

by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2026

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.

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Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.

Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 28, 2026

ISBN: 9781464268076

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SUN THIEF
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SNOW THIEF
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BISON AND THE BUTTERFLY
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nancy Leschnikoff

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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)